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Moscot’s mobile retrospective brings downtown New York to Zürich

The New York eyewear institution has converted a Zürich tram into a roving showroom, transporting five generations of heritage and handcrafted style across Swiss cities.

By Jordana LynchThursday, 5th of November 20262 min read
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A white and blue Moscot branded tram travels past historic pale stone buildings in Zürich, with a red Swiss flag hanging from overhead cables and pink geraniums spilling from balconies above.
Moscot (@moscotnyc)

Moscot, a five generation, family owned, New York City heritage eyewear brand with over 100 years of optical expertise, has transformed a Zürich tram into a moving celebration of downtown Manhattan style. The tram’s bold yellow and royal blue livery wraps the vehicle in Moscot’s unmistakable branding, its signature eyeglasses motif repeated across the side, announcing itself with characteristic directness to the Swiss city’s elegant streets. Through the windows, customers can glimpse frames hanging from the same display cases that evoke the character of Moscot’s original Lower East Side storefront, filled with display cases and collected artifacts.

Close-up view of the Moscot tram's side, showing the yellow and blue livery with oversized eyeglasses logos and display windows revealing frames inside, with elegant nineteenth-century Zürich architecture framing the scene.

Founded in 1915 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Moscot carries within its frames more than a century of optical vision and craft. Founded by Harvey’s great grandfather Hyman, Moscot began as a humble pushcart on Orchard Street, with help from his son Sol, Hyman went on to open the brand’s first storefront on Rivington Street. That lineage pulses through every pair made today: every silhouette begins with optical performance, lens depth, bridge engineering, structural integrity, and the ability to accommodate a full range of prescriptions, before design details are layered in; style is never separate from function; it is built upon it.

The mobile Moscot showroom passes beneath power lines in downtown Zürich, a Swiss flag flying above as the tram displays its cargo of New York heritage frames to the Swiss city's refined streets.

The Zürich tour carries Moscot’s downtown aesthetic across European cities, bringing the energy and heritage of New York’s most storied neighbourhood to Swiss boulevards. Inside the tram, shoppers encounter the iconic design of the Lemtosh, which stands the test of time and continues to uphold a legacy of its own, alongside frames drawn from the brand’s deep archives. The Moscot Originals frames, highly distinctive, encapsulate the stylistic codes of the 1930s to the 1980s, drawing inspiration from the brand’s archives. Each frame carries forward the philosophy that defined Moscot from its earliest days on the streets of Lower Manhattan: uncompromising form, impeccable fit, and timeless quality.

Imagery courtesy of Moscot (@moscotnyc).

Close-up view of the Moscot tram's side, showing the yellow and blue livery with oversized eyeglasses logos and display windows revealing frames inside, with elegant nineteenth-century Zürich architecture framing the scene.
The mobile Moscot showroom passes beneath power lines in downtown Zürich, a Swiss flag flying above as the tram displays its cargo of New York heritage frames to the Swiss city's refined streets.

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