Flying visit to Copenhagen
We took a flying visit to Copenhagen Specs a couple of weeks ago, a developing trade show in a fantastic venue on the edge of Copenhagen and of course it was a good excuse to enjoy the sites and hospitality of the beautiful Danish people. The Danes have always been known for they style and beautiful clean simplistic designs, many iconic furnishings, lighting and flat pack furniture have emerged from Denmark so we wanted to see how this has transferred through to their eyewear.
We were not disappointed the show which is in its fourth year is set in a beautiful old warehouse on the edge of the city. The venue is simple but as with anything the Danish people create it had a minimalist style and a lovely relaxed atmosphere.
After visiting the show, we wanted to visit some of the optical stores in and around Copenhagen to get a real in depth feel for the Danish ethos of style, manufacture and retail.
There were many countries exhibiting at the show and it was lovely to see some of our brands there. We met up with the Booth and Bruce boys whose sunglasses ‘Blogger’ was listed as a finalist at the shows design awards.
Woow and Caroline Abrams, some more collections that we stock were also exhibiting so we had a look at the new pieces being launched and the new stock will be arriving soon.
We browsed around the well-known Danish brands with their clean lines and simplistic timeless styles, Kilsgard, Orgreen and Lindberg, to name just a few and we also discovered some interesting fun collections which we think would bring a smile to the faces of the good people of Market Harborough.
One such collection was a new Spanish collection called Paper & Paper and the frames were literally made of recycled paper, magazines and comic books.
In some of the frames the paper was hand layered between acetate, creating a beautiful colourful 3D effect and on other pieces the paper was over layer and then protected with high quality resins, giving a very tactile matt finish to the frames. They were really fun, interesting and colourful, and all
We visited a beautiful opticians in a tiny court yard. It was fascinating, they made all their own frames, using vintage equipment and a lot of hard work to hand finish every frame.
We then went to see Ivan at Glas Optik a new beautiful contemporary optical store set in a very fashionable part of Copenhagen
The store has been open for just over four months and has been well received both by local people and people travelling from further a field to visit. Interestingly they stock quite a few similar brand to us, L.G.R. and Dior ….. so perhaps we’re doing something right.
And on another note if you ever visit Copenhagen there are some fabulous places to eat but if you get the chance try Paper Island a former industrial paper store which has been transformed into a mecca for food. This industrial store houses an eclectic mix of street food stalls from around the globe, there are communal seating areas with huge wood burning stoves to really make the interior cosy and comforting, they regularly host live bands and musical entertainment, it was a real joy.
