When and where Silmo Paris 2026 takes place
SILMO Paris 2026 runs from 25 to 28 September 2026 at the Paris Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre, on the northern edge of the city. Dates, ticket ordering, the exhibitor list and practical visitor information are published by the organiser on the official SILMO Paris site.
The fair has opened each new season for the international eyewear and optics industry since 1967. The organiser’s published figures for the show give a sense of the scale: 900 companies from 42 countries, 1,500 brands, 75,000 square metres of exhibition space and 33,688 visitors.
What the fair is for
The organiser put forward four things as the substance of the show: debut collections, major innovations, emerging talent and exceptional craftsmanship. That order matters. A trade fair of this size is where a house first shows what it has spent a year making. And where a name nobody knows gets a stand three metres wide and a chance to showcase their frames.
A Trends Forum runs alongside the stands, presenting the directions the organiser expects to shape the coming seasons. The Congrès d’Optométrie et de Contactologie is also joining SILMO Academy to host a dedicated contact lens space across all four days.
Debut collections and what a September launch actually means
September is the industry’s hinge. A frame shown in Paris at the end of the month is usually the frame that reaches shelves over the following year. Which is why a preview is worth reading now rather than after the fact.
For the large houses, a debut collection tends to mean a handful of new shapes and a refreshed palette across existing families. For small independent makers it can mean the entire year’s output. That is twenty or thirty frames, made in short runs. And some of those will never repeat once the acetate block or the coloured titanium sheet runs out. That scarcity is not marketing; it is simply what happens when a workshop is small.
Two things are worth watching in any debut range. First, whether a new shape is a genuinely new front or an old front with new colour. Second, whether the construction has changed — hinges, rim wire, bridge geometry and temple taper are where a maker’s thinking shows, and where the frame either becomes wearable or does not.
Threads to look for on the stands
Nothing about next season settles until the halls open, but a few threads run through independent eyewear year after year. And they are the ones to look at first when the new collections are photographed and written up.
- Thin metal and rimless. Titanium in fine gauges continues to give makers a way to build a frame that reads as a line on the face rather than a block of colour.
- Acetate as material, not just colour. Laminated blocks, transparent layers over solid cores. Bevelled edges that catch the light are where acetate houses distinguish themselves.
- Proportion over size. The interesting question is rarely whether frames are bigger or smaller. Rather, where the eye sits inside the rim and how deep the front is relative to the face.
- Bridge design. A season’s shapes are only useful if the bridge sits where it should. Many frames are for a higher bridge profile, and we pay particular attention to fit for Asian facial features so the frame sits securely and comfortably without slipping or resting on the cheeks.
- Colour that is not black. Greens, ambers, burgundies and brushed golds are all worth looking at alongside the more familiar darker tones.
The wider Silmo family
Paris is the main event, but the organiser also runs SILMO Istanbul, which has spent a decade serving Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and SILMO Riyadh, positioned as a platform for the optics and eyewear industry across the Middle East. For anyone tracking where new collections surface outside Europe, those two are worth knowing about.
From a show floor in Paris to a fitting room in Holland Village
Photographs from a trade fair are good for spotting a shape you like. They are not much good for deciding whether it suits you. The best way to choose a frame is to try it in person — you can really judge fit, proportion and comfort only when you put a frame on.
We carry luxury eyewear and unique designs — frames you will not find in a chain — from small independent houses, with distinctive materials and shapes, chosen because they are beautiful and made well. We select frames in small, considered quantities, choosing each one for how it fits and feels on a person, not simply for how it looks on display. That is the difference between a collection on a stand and a collection on a shelf in Holland Village.
Come and see our brands
The names we carry and work with include Lindberg, Masunaga, Matsuda, Lunor, ic! berlin, Anne et Valentin, Lafont, Thom Browne, Sabine Be, Reykjavik Eyes, Wissing, Vanni, Face a Face, Coco Song, Dita, Akoni and Albert I’mStein. We are an authorised dealer of Lindberg.
Ultimately, if nothing in a new season is quite the shape you want, we can make a frame for you! We make hand-made spectacles in-house, and custom shapes are part of what we do. Frames you already own can get a new lease of life as well — repair and restoration and repaint can bring an older pair back into rotation alongside anything new.
We have been at this for nearly twenty years, and our blog explores the details we are noticing as the season turns.
