Melissa Blais is working on what you'll be wearing in 2010, drawing inspiration from Paris, Milan, Shanghai and Tokyo.
She makes eyewear designs come to life for labels such as Revlon, Tommy Bahama and Joseph Abboud, and 25,000 private-practice eye doctors and their patients. Blais is the design manager for Rancho Cordova-based Altair Eyewear.
A machinist's daughter, she learned early about the relationship between machining and design. A high school art class would lead her to New York's prestigious Pratt Institute, and ultimately to Altair.
"I've been a little lucky, but I put myself in that position," Blais, 29, said. "I just keep working hard."
For Blais, the first head of design at Altair, it's her big break.
Altair's parent company is VSP Vision Care, with $2.6 billion in 2007 revenue. One of every six Americans – 55 million people – receives eye care from the benefits provider. VSP's Altair is a $40 million division.
VSP became larger with its August acquisition of Marchon Eyewear for $735 million. Marchon makes and sells eyewear and sunwear for labels including Calvin Klein, Coach, Karl Lagerfeld and Sean John as well as its house brands.
The deal creates a company with an estimated $3.3 billion in 2008 revenue, making it one of the largest ophthalmic companies based in the United States.
The combined company is poised to take advantage of a lucrative market.
Some $15.8 billion was spent on eyeglass frames and lenses in the United States in 2007, according to industry research firm Jobson Optical Research. That's nearly identical to sales figures in 2006, when $15.7 billion was spent on the items. About $14.2 billion was spent on frames and lenses in 2005.
Though VSP launched Altair in 1992, bringing Altair's design function to Rancho Cordova was a relatively new development, coinciding with a move toward designing for consumer brands.
For much of Altair's history, the company developed and marketed its own eyewear collections, employing design teams from China or Italy and supplementing them with freelance designers from New York and Los Angeles.
But in a multibillion-dollar market, Altair changed its strategy in 2004 to add consumer brands to the private lines it supplied to its VSP-member doctors.
Eyewear had become a fashion statement and the brands at retailers such as Lenscrafters reflected the trend: Donna Karan, Versace, Prada and Ralph Lauren.
"The need for us to move in that direction became more obvious," said Altair President Steve Wright.
The next step was to move its design facilities to VSP's sprawling Rancho Cordova campus.
With the growing variety of brands in Altair's portfolio, "It was easier to bring (design) in-house," Wright said.
Barely three years removed from Pratt Institute, Blais had served as an apprentice at a New York eyewear accessories house and Altair competitor, taking over the operation when the owners retired.
It was Blais' work in New York that caught the attention of Altair just as the company was looking for someone to lead its design division. Blais took the job in May 2006.
Today, she is working on collections for fall 2009 and spring 2010, including what Altair is calling its "California Collection," with lines that evoke regions and images of the Golden State: San Francisco, Cupertino, Tahoe, Venice Beach.
Blais also looks abroad to the forward-looking styles of Europe and Asia for inspiration.
"The German market is amazing for color. They're willing to step out and put amazing color on the face," she said. "In Japan, there are such beautifully crafted designs, and in China they push the envelope and mix all these different looks together for the market."
With the Marchon acquisition, Blais and Altair may soon be competing head-to-head with the overseas designs.
Marchon's global network distributes products to more than 100,000 locations in more than 100 countries and posted 2007 revenue of $525 million.
Marchon's offices will remain in New York. Altair will remain at VSP's Rancho Cordova campus. With design teams on both coasts, "it will be interesting to see down the road how they might share their expertise," said Marge Axelrad, a vice president at Jobson Optical Information LLC.
Blais, newly married with a design team of her own, calls the Altair job an exciting opportunity.
"Altair's a small company and as a designer who lived in New York, I wanted to raise a family and move to a suburban area. Plus, you get to do what you love and build a design team from scratch," she said. "I love it here."
Call The Bee's Darrell Smith, (916) 321-1040.
