THE HISTORY OF THE LOFT EYEWEAR SHOW IS ONE OF PASSION AND DETERMINATION.

TIMELINE

2000 - Bevel and Face a Face teamed up to start the LOFT NYC experience as longtime friends and one time roommates! First location was on 34th street in a private loft.

2002 - LOFT NYC moved to 35th street to Splashlight Studios - a very cool photo studio that was demolished in 2008 as part of the New York Subway construction project.

2008 - LOFT NYC finds it’s new home on 36th street at Skylight West and invite several other companies/friends to join including SALT and Ramassia (Anne et Valentin & Theo)

2013 - The first LOFT LV is held at the Mandarin Oriental in Las Vegas. A truly pioneering event that included more of our friends, Götti, Freudenhaus, Rolf Spectacles, Bellinger, Entourage Of 7 and Blac.

2015 - LOFT LV grew to be bigger and better than ever. 36 luxury collections in the same place made it the premiere luxury eyewear destination in Las Vegas. Our reputation for putting on a great and successful show had been solidified over the previous 2 years and 2015 proved no different.

2017 - We presented a brand new 2 level concept at LOFT NYC which turned out to be a smash hit! So many more independent collections were on show and it was very well received and attended. In Las Vegas we debuted an entirely new show, moving from the Mandarin to the magnificent Keep Memory Alive facility which was designed by Frank Gehry. The show was our biggest yet in terms of vendors and new collections and the space was magnificent. We also presented an amazing panel discussion format called Viewpoint which featured 10 successful women in the optical field.

2019 - Our event in NYC expanded in 2019 with the inclusion of 2 new buildings a block away from our main site. We welcomed many new and exciting vendors including Mykita, who along with SALT, anchored these new spaces. We also completed a very successful new venture creating an independent eyewear event over a weekend in San Francisco at the spectacular Fort Mason Center.

2020 - The new year marked our 20th Anniversary in New York City. Our tiny show initially featuring only a couple of independent brands had blossomed over the years into a gigantic event across 3 buildings and a couple of blocks in the City. Unfortunately the pandemic caused the cancellation of the event and we were not able to celebrate this milestone.

2021 - We had to cancel our NYC event in May but we had a very successful show in San Francisco in September at the Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture where we first scheduled a show back in 2019. Obviously the pandemic had severely affected the scope of trade events during these years.

2023 - The LOFT NYC show this year was a wonderfully successful event. We had an increase in overall foot traffic and a lot of new visitors found there way to our venue. The legendary LOFT Independence Party was also back in 2023!

2024 - We welcomed several new vendors including Kuboraum and L.A. Eyeworks to our NYC event. We also decided to stay in NYC on the back of the news that Vision Expo was to move to Orlando in 2025. We also announced our brand new spaces for the event situated in the Chelsea District of the city.