At its core, Conception Générale is a concept made tangible. Its very name carries a resonance: a French sound that evokes engineering precision and intellectual elegance, nodding to the era when creatives gravitated toward Paris to develop new visual languages. The brand draws from street style yet ascends toward the heights of design, tracing a lineage that begins with London’s vibrant Swinging Sixties and extends across the dreamscapes of the twentieth century.
Each decade becomes a world of reference, an archive of silhouettes, attitudes, and creative revolutions, reinterpreted through a singular aesthetic principle: the curve.
In a market where entry has become increasingly difficult, shaped by sales agents who often overstep their roles to protect their territories and by tightly controlled narratives, launching a brand within this ecosystem, one that is no longer truly free, becomes a bold and resonant decision.
At the same time, the new wave of brands emerging over the past three years has shown that sales agents can no longer shape or manipulate the optician’s choices as they once did. Today, opticians have access to new sources of reference and inspiration when selecting what to carry, increasingly seeking brands that are not widely available and prioritising differentiation and exclusivity in their assortments.
A Universe Shaped by Form
The identity of Conception Générale manifests itself through sculptural design. Here, form is inseparable from curvature. The curve reigns not only in the profile of each frame, but also in the smallest architectural details: edges are fully chamfered, surfaces softened and shaped until the material itself seems to flow.
Cellulose acetate, described as memory made solid, is carved by hand in Italy by master artisans. The process is meticulous, slow craftsmanship elevated into contemporary expression. Each frame is polished to a hypnotic shine, where transparency merges with chromatic depth to create a vitreous glaze. In this dialogue between colour and light, iridescence becomes an expressive medium rather than mere decoration.
Conception Générale is, in many ways, a treasure chest of dreams, holding not only curves of design, but curves of thought.
Stefano Bellotto: The Tailor of Eyewear
Behind the brand is Creative Director Stefano Bellotto, whose path into eyewear feels less like a professional decision and more like a natural evolution, shaped by craft, sharpened through curiosity, and refined across years of international experience.
Trained as an optician at the Zaccagnini School of Optics in Bologna, Bellotto inherited technical discipline through his father’s profession, but quickly approached eyewear as a cultural landscape rather than a purely commercial one. From the outset, international trade fairs became his galleries, spaces to study proportion, innovation, and form through a design-led lens.
That sensitivity led him to London, a defining chapter in his career.
At General Eyewear, one of the world’s most influential eyewear ateliers, Bellotto refined his craft within extraordinary historical archives of rare vintage frames. Working closely with these objects, he developed an intimate understanding of how eyewear interacts with its wearer. He became, in his own way, a tailor of glasses, mastering fit, balance, and adaptation until frames felt as though they were born with the person wearing them.
Alongside atelier work, Bellotto collaborated with photographers and creative teams across the city, contributing as an Eyewear Stylist and Fitting Specialist to eyewear-focused shoots that demanded both technical precision and aesthetic sensitivity.
From Prototype to Collection
Returning to Italy, Bellotto shifted from experience to experimentation. Working quietly in the garage of a local artisan, he developed twelve initial prototypes, objects born from instinct, research, and hands on making.
Presented to Domenico Concato, Founder of JDO Eyewear, these prototypes sparked the idea of transforming an early experiment into a fully realised collection. From that exchange, Conception Générale was born.
Today, the brand reflects Bellotto’s journey: rooted in technical expertise, elevated by design culture, and driven by an uncompromising commitment to fit and form.
The JDO Eyewear Foundation
Supporting Conception Générale’s manufacturing excellence is JDO Eyewear, founded in 2012 in Montecchio Maggiore, Vicenza, an area renowned for artisanal expertise.
JDO has become a reference point in the eyewear industry for fine quality, handcrafted, timeless frames, produced through a sustainable, ethical, and fully transparent supply chain. Its unique proximity to jewellery craftsmanship has enabled collaborations with artisans trained as goldsmiths, bringing a rare level of precision to eyewear production.
Eyewear as Experience
Conception Générale stands at the intersection of craftsmanship and contemporary expression, where eyewear is not simply worn, but experienced.
Rooted in French fashion tradition, shaped by Italian manufacturing heritage, and guided by London’s spirit of cultural freedom, the brand operates as a space of experimentation. Oversized silhouettes, subtle asymmetries, layered acetates, and polished surfaces define a collection that feels both archival and radically current.
In Conception Générale’s universe, eyewear becomes a medium for expression rather than a fixed category.
A visual manifesto shaped by eras, reimagined for now.
It may still be too early to make definitive predictions about the brand’s future in such a closed and highly mediated market. However, supported by a strong distribution team, it stands a credible chance of establishing itself over time.
Today, emerging brands are no longer competing solely on aesthetics or storytelling, but on their ability to navigate and outmaneuver a system that is increasingly restrictive and controlled. Ultimately, the key role belongs to the optician, whose discernment and independence are essential in looking beyond what is simply presented and choosing with true conviction.
