The eyewear designers of the CFDA – known as the edCFDA – is a  sub-group of the CFDA’s membership aims to inspire, empower and promote awareness of eyewear design.

On Thursday, The Vision Council and RX, which organize Vision Expo, selected, with edCFDA’s support, the winner of the second Vision Expo Global Talent Search: emerging eyewear brand Port Tanger.

“The seven edCFDA designers and judges have gathered and are collectively proud to announce the independent eyewear brand Port Tanger as the recipient of the 2022 Global Vision Expo Talent Search Award,” said CFDA member Christian Roth, who was among the judges of the award. “This year’s award has a very special meaning to us. Despite the uncertainty and challenges of the past two years, this skillful design team has had the courage and resources to pursue his dreams while navigating the pandemic with creativity and brilliance.”

The  additional edCFDA judges were Jeff Press of Morgenthal Frederics, Gai Gherardi of l.a. Eyeworks, Patty Perreira of Barton Perreira, Selima Salaun of Selima Optique, Shane Baum of Leisure Society, and Blake Kuwahara of FOCUS GROUP WEST.

“I come from a production background, and I fell in love with eyewear in my early twenties and I started to collect before giving life to few ideas,” said Bilal Fellah, an owner and designer of Port Tanger.  “We are a team of four and one cannot take all the credit, though.  We work with many different talents and Port Tanger is a true collective.  Only with the help of my business partner was I able to create what Port Tanger is today.  Our goal is to embrace our culture and heritage through our eyewear.  We are pleased to receive this award and continue our vision.”

Port Tanger – inspired by Moroccan city Tangier, which is a gateway to Africa and a portal to Europe, will be showcasing the new collections in a complimentary booth at Vision Expo East 2022, set for March 31-April 3 at Manhattan’s Javits Center.

To celebrate the brand and award, the edCFDA and the show organizers are hosting an event  on Saturday, April 2, 2022, at 5 PM in Vision Expo’s The Atelier section. All CFDA members are invite to join the celebration, which will also feature CFDA’s Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Dapper Dan.