Eyes Right Optical's Mark Wymond on his Modstyle stand at Silmo

Australian frame brand Modstyle, developed by Australasian distributor Eyes Right Optical’s Mark Wymond, and a familiar name in this part of the world, was launched into the European market at the 2024 Silmo optical fair in Paris.

Wymond said he decided to expand the brand’s markets given its success in Australasia (and more recently the US) and because one of his senior salespeople had relocated to the UK for love! “A business is built on people. We've got good products, but you need the right people to help you get where you want to be.”

France is one of the biggest eyewear markets in the world, so Silmo was the perfect springboard to reach into the French market and to introduce the brand to the Netherlands and Germany, he said. “We started with English-speaking countries, so we’re pushing out of our comfort zone. But our collections are strong, both in terms of quality and price, so they do seem to be resonating well. The price point we achieve is similar to many generic products, but we have our own design studio and we put a lot of effort into making the collections as beautiful as possible.”

Wymond said he’d been rushed off his feet since arriving at Silmo given that he was not only running his own stand, but also visiting Eyes Right’s European suppliers and selecting new collections for the Australasian market.

As well as European distributors and opticians, he’d had interest from India and Israel, he said. Particularly pleasing was the support he’d had from Eyes Right suppliers, like Design Eyewear Group, who’d sent other customers over to see him and had even offered to help with translating if he needed it. “It's been crazy. But I'm lucky with the team I have here. It is exhausting, but exciting at the same time; you literally don't know who's going to walk around the corner.”