The edCFDA group is celebrating its 10th anniversary in conjunction with Vision Expo West.
The organization, which is comprised of independent eyewear designers who are members of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, is celebrating the milestone with an anniversary collection that benefits Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, which supports childhood cancer research.
Since its inception, edCFDA has worked to spotlight various causes and organizations by creating charitable eyewear collections.
Related Articles
“We have a mission statement, and we still stick to it,” said eyewear designer Christian Roth, the organization’s chairperson. “After 10 years, we continue to stick to it. It’s our work and our goal to inspire, to empower and to elevate the optical industries through various kinds of promotions, education, mentoring, and most important to us, collaborative fundraising initiatives.”
You May Also Like
The 10th anniversary eyewear collection is codesigned by six members of the edCFDA, including Roth; Blake Kuwahara; Gai Gherardi and Barbara McReynolds of I.A.Eyeworks; Jeff Press of Press Eyewear; Patty Perreira of Barton Perreira, and Selima Salaun of Selima Optique.
The collection includes five sunglasses and one ophthalmic frame created by each designer. The styles are all designed in a lavender color as it’s a hue linked with cancer awareness causes, and each piece is crafted with the designer’s own design codes. Prices range from $375 for Roth’s style to $4,670 for Barton Perreira’s sunglasses, which are designed with pink sapphires.
“It was only a color — we don’t have rules within our group,” Roth said about the collection’s design process. “Everybody is supposed to create the way he or she feels, but we use a lavender colored tone to have a red thread.”
The edCFDA was founded in 2014 at Vision Expo West in Las Vegas with eight members. The initiative has grown to include 12 members and has created many charitable eyewear collections that have benefited organizations like Bring Change to Mind, Fashion Targets Breast Cancer, the Los Angeles LGBT Center and the Trans Latina Coalition in Los Angeles, among others.
“These remarkable designers have repeatedly demonstrated that their unified efforts have not only brought greater global visibility to each of their unique talents, but that together they have had the ability to provide truly meaningful financial support to various charitable organizations, and to the communities that they serve,” said Lisa Smilor, executive vice president of the CFDA. “I have the utmost admiration and appreciation for this special group of CFDA members, which has been led by the indefatigable Christian Roth for the past decade, with the hope that others will be inspired by, and aim to emulate their successful efforts.”
Roth explained edCFDA typically releases two to three charitable eyewear collections each year, one being its annual Pride Month line that it has produced since 2022. In the last two years, edCFDA has raised more than $100,000 with its Pride collections.
“That was a very important initiative we worked on because we want to create awareness and it’s something which is all very close to our hearts,” Roth said. “Not all of our members are part of the LGBTQIA+ community, but a number of them are. For us, it’s important to create awareness. We’re able to reach the consumer and they will transmit the message to their friends and family. So, in the end, it’s like a chain effect. We reach a lot of people.”
Going forward, Roth said the edCFDA’s goal is to continue to add members and encourage other independent eyewear designers to join the CFDA. Overall, the organization’s goal of raising awareness for various causes will stay at the core of its mission.
“We want to keep strengthening our voices,” Roth said. “We want to nurture new talent, to attract a new generation of talented eyewear designers, and above all, we want to emphasize doing good, but also to keep it intimate with a strong feeling of camaraderie.”