Milan is where Italian eyewear meets fashion. The frames are mostly made in the Belluno valleys, but the brands, showrooms and buyers are in Milan. Luxottica, which owns Ray-Ban and makes frames for many fashion houses, has its headquarters here, and the MIDO eyewear show each year fills the Fiera Milano exhibition centre at Rho.

MIDO

MIDO, the Milan eyewear show, is one of the largest eyewear trade fairs in the world. Held each year in late winter or early spring, it brings together frame makers, lens makers, machine builders and opticians from more than 150 countries. Small independent makers show next to global brands, and trends in frame shapes, colours and materials are often first seen here.

Fashion frames

From the 1980s Milan's fashion houses began putting their names on sunglasses and frames made under licence by Belluno manufacturers. Oversized sunglasses, logo temples and bold acetate colours spread from Milan's runways. Luxottica bought Ray-Ban in 1999 and merged with the French lens maker Essilor in 2018 to form EssilorLuxottica. Milan's Fashion Weeks still set looks for faces each season.