Safilo x Parsons Design Thesis Compeition winning eyewear design.
​
NEW YORK—Safilo Group and The New School’s Parsons School of Design announced the winner of the Safilo x Parsons Design Thesis Competition as well as celebrated their partnership during the school’s 69th Annual Benefit Gala on May 22, 2017.

Olivia LeBlanc, the student finalist, was presented with the Safilo Award and a $5,000 prize. Four of the six Safilo prototypes were featured in the school’s runway fashion show which was attended by key fashion players such as Rihanna.

Safilo and Parsons provided six thesis-level BFA students with the opportunity to design eyewear as a key component of their final thesis work and see their prototyped designed come to fruition through the oversight of Safilo designers and Parsons’s School of Fashion faculty. The results were showcased at Vision Expo East 2017.

“The Safilo x Parsons Design Thesis Competition builds not only on the value that Safilo places on eyewear and the company’s ongoing commitment to preserve eyewear craftsmanship, but also on Safilo’s commitment to educate younger generations by passing down the art of eyewear as the company has done with its Safilo Product School which was inaugurated in 2015 as an apprenticeship program,” the company said.

The thesis competition, a celebration of the up-and-coming designers of the next generation, underscores design and product excellence. The six students: Samantha Sutton, Ji Hyun Myung, Olivia LeBlanc (winner), Eun Byul Kim, Myung Eun Cha and Seh Yoon Lee, were chosen from a number of senior candidates who submitted their designs through Parsons and underwent a screening process coordinated by Alessandro Marcer, vice president, creative director of Safilo USA who heads the company’s New York design studio and Vladimiro Baldin, chief design product officer of Safilo Group.

Additionally, Marcer coached the six students throughout the entire process working closely with Safilo CAD engineering to perfect all aesthetic functional and technical elements of their designs to then see their creations brought to life by Safilo atelier.