Silhouette Celebrates Multiple Milestones
The eyewear brand marks its 60TH BRAND ANNIVERSARY and 25 years of its Titan Minimal Art collection.
2024 IS A BIG YEAR for Silhouette. As the Austria-based eyewear company celebrates its 60th anniversary it is also recognizing 25 years of its popular Titan Minimal Art collection. Renowned for its “passion for perfection,” the family-owned business continues to intrigue discerning consumers with its ongoing commitment to excellence and sustainability through innovative, comfortable and quality lenses. Making an early impression on the world, in its third generation, Silhouette has the Titan Minimal Art collection has long become the undisputed global leader been a favorite particularly for outer in premium, rimless eyewear with space travelers. Providing astronauts with an innovative approach to design, reliable vision in space for nearly 25 years, production and sustainability. the glasses have been revolutionary in While Silhouette has seen tremendous the eyewear industry with their neargrowth over the past 60 years, our original weightless and rimless design and endless values and traditions have remained at the customizable options. core of our brand’s DNA. Silhouette has
Since its origin, the collections have become synonymous with minimalistic, evolved over time to meet the needs of lightweight, high-quality eyewear that its consumers with lens enhancements, always delivers a perfect, tailored fit. Our personalization options and a wide success has been built off our passion for range of styles. Silhouette’s latest update perfection, along with our dedication to of the 25th-anniversary Titan Minimal absolute precision, visionary design and Art collection continues to push the innovative production advancements. boundaries of modern eyewear. As a family business, we think long
Here, Michael Schmied, chief marketing term. A family is inherently a sustainable officer and third generation founding construct that naturally thinks from family member at Silhouette, goes deep generation to generation and not from with Fairchild Studio, discussing the balance sheet to balance sheet. Our brand’s achievements, its enduring family financial independence has allowed us values, adaptation to eyewear trends, to make independent decisions over the meeting consumer demand and more. years and take responsible action before
making quick profits.
Fairchild Studio: Congratulations on 60 years! Can you tell us about how Silhouette has carried its passion from its start to remain a leader in the eyewear industry today?
Michael Schmied: Silhouette is incredibly proud to celebrate such a momentous milestone this year. In 1964, my grandparents Anneliese and Arnold Schmied combined their visionary mindset and global perspective as they introduced the world to Silhouette. They started with only five employees and the extraordinary designer Dora Demmel. As a family-owned and operated company
Fairchild Studio: How has Silhouette adapted to the changing trends in the eyewear industry over the years? How do you ensure the brand remains committed to quality and sustainability?
M.S.: When developing new collections, minimalism is at the center of everything we do, ensuring our products can be heirlooms passed down from generation to generation. This approach allows for customization with limitless potential to be at the forefront of design. Our eyewear is all about feeling light in all facets. In a world where trends can be fleeting, we empower our wearers to make timeless choices that become part of their individual style. We also take our commitment to sustainability very seriously and try to keep the footprint of our products as small as possible.
We use as little material as possible in all our product lines and continuously improve processes to avoid waste— without compromising on quality and comfort. For the past few years, we have been able to reduce our emissions by 50 percent. In September 2022, we reached the goal of reducing emissions in our eyewear production to net zero through external offsetting.
With our sights set on the future, we have a goal to reduce our CO2 emissions to zero without external offsetting by 2027. At our corporate headquarters and our production site, we already use 100 percent CO2-free, sustainable and environmentally friendly electricity.
Our energy is generated from natural, renewable sources such as wind, solar, hydroelectric and biofuels and is free of nuclear power. We are committed to investing in clean energy for the future.
Fairchild Studio: As the Titan Minimal Art Collection reaches its 25th anniversary, how has this collection revolutionized the eyewear industry and what do you attribute to its enduring global appeal?
M.S.: To celebrate 25 years of a successful collection is such an incredible honor, and truly reflects the Titan Minimal Art’s timeless appeal.
Back in 1999, the pared-back design was ahead of its time, but the collection quickly caught the attention of glasses wearers with over one million pairs sold in the first year. While Titan Minimal
Art’s iconic, design has remained at the collection’s core, Silhouette is constantly evolving its intricacies with passion, dedication and meticulousness.
Since its debut in 1999, Titan Minimal Art has grown with over 22 optical and 27 sun collections. This year, Silhouette celebrates its icon with an update—designed for the next generation of visionaries. The 2024 collection combines the best of 25 years while introducing exciting new enhancements to appeal to a new wave of discerning consumers.
We are very proud that our rimless eyewear has been a trusted partner on over 70 space missions so far — a testament to the collection’s reliability, unparalleled wearing comfort and durability under extreme conditions.
The 2024 Titan Minimal Art Collection embodies modern minimalism while offering vision without limits and the empowering feeling of lightness. The highlight rimless models are adorned by an innovative, hand-applied, lensfinishing technique, an enhanced nose bridge and flexible, hinge-less temples that conform to the wearer.
The collection offers an assortment of attention-grabbing shapes in bold colors, as well as timeless options for everyday wear.
A new, exciting feature is our
“Partial Color Groove” treatment. With this application, the shapes can be highlighted to create a fresh new look— either with accentuated bottom or brow lines or even with split grooves. The freedom to play with shapes and sizes allows our consumers to customize and fine-tune their eyewear to achieve frames with a perfect fit that is highly individualized.
Fairchild Studio: How do the customization options offered by Silhouette improve the consumer experience and meet individual needs?
M.S.: For the past 25 years, Silhouette has been able to offer a one-of-a-kind consumer experience with endless possibilities for eyewear customization. Consumers have the unique ability to mix and match the many rimless shapes, sizes, temple colors and optional lens tints to create their own customized eyewear.
We’re also very excited to launch “Uniquely Yours” — a pioneering new approach to customization that empowers our account partners to select their preferred lens shapes and frame temples to combine and showcase in their shop. This allows them to perfectly tailor their assortment at the point of sale to meet the unique needs of their business.