Meta launches the second generation of Ray-Ban Stories

Silhouette's Titan Minimal Art is one of those rare and valuable ideas that are still relevant many years after they were conceived. To this day, there is no other frame in the world that is so consistently and skillfully minimalist.

This timeless, rimless frame has no hinges, no screws and, at 0.06 grams, virtually no weight. It still inspires with unparalleled comfort and unsurpassed (design) quality. Its introduction, in which I was directly and intensively involved at the time, felt like a real revolution.

Never before has glasses design been so embraced by both opticians and consumers. There was a point where we felt like just about every glasses wearer was wearing a Titan Minimal Art.

  “I just wanted to leave out everything that was unnecessary, but also refused to compromise on design and comfort,” says designer Gerhard Fuchs, looking back on his design. “Suddenly we were receiving letters and emails from all over the world, people thanking us,” recalls Michael Schmied, a member of the family that owns Silhouette.

“That was extraordinary and very moving.” More than 12.4 million pair of this iconic design have been sold to date – and there is no end in sight to this success.

On another page on this website we give you 7 reasons to always buy your new glasses, sunglasses or contact lenses from an independent optician. One of these is the collection with a lot of beautiful distinctive fashion and design brands.

And it becomes even more fun if you can get your hands on a limited edition from such a brand. At the end of last year and if you are quick, even now, it is possible.

 The Iconic Machined by Porsche Design, the three remakes of just as many iconic designs by Cazal to celebrate 50 years of hip hop and Peter Auto's collaboration with Brett Eyewear that resulted in a beautiful gift box on the occasion of the Estoril Classics 2023 are all unique sunglasses of which very few are for sale worldwide. Of course we know where in the Benelux, so click on the photos below, read all about these very special sunglasses and easily find a selling point.

Amsterdam-based Orange Babies was founded 25 years ago by Baba Sylla and two friends with the aim of preventing mothers with HIV in South Africa from infecting their unborn children.

Since then, almost 600,000 children have been born healthy thanks to information, medication and care, but unfortunately the battle is far from over and there is still a lot of work to be done. Orange Babies has the slogan 'creative in beating HIV' and lives up to that with many original and creative projects with which it raises money to do all the work. With the arrival of Fiona Hering as director, this creativity has been given new impetus since last year.

NanaWoody&John feels addressed by this and has taken the initiative to contribute, together with the affiliated stores and companies, to a very concrete project of Orange Babies: a new mobile clinic in Limpopo in the far north of South Africa because the current one after twelve years of service, is now really on its last legs.

This week the project officially started at Max voor Ogen in Schagen which donates a nice amount to Orange Babies for every pair of glasses sold this month. For this official start, Fiona Hering herself came to Schagen to buy nice new glasses. That immediately became two of course. A beautiful black frame with low spring attachment from Cazal and a beautiful elegant oversized model from Linda Farrow. Both when they are ready, of course, with the best glasses from HOYA.

This promotional month at Max voor Ogen iis the start of many more great promotions from suppliers and stores about which we will keep you informed this year. If you also want to contribute, you can do so with a self-chosen contribution via this link to the Orange Babies website. Please mention 'NanaWoody&John' in the 'remark' so that the money ends up in the correct fund. If you want to do a nice promotion with your brand or store, then at NanaWoody&John and Orange Babies we are happy to think with you about something original and create all publicity for your social media or other expressions, for example, at no cost.

Eyewear has developed from necessary vision tool to important fashion accessory. Last Monday we celebrated this amazing evolution at the NanaWoody&John Night at the Club in the trendy Harbour Club at Amsterdam.

About 180 of the best opticians and representatives of the best eyewear brands enjoyed an amazing dinner which started with a small light show.

Zeiss Vision was honoured with an Award for their amazing Convention earlier this year at Berlin and Calvin Klein got another one for a major online eyewear campaign reaching more than 4 million people.

Dutch HIPHOP legend and eyewear collectioneur Brainpower was honoured as the Spectacle Wearer of the Year and we announced a collaboration with Orange Babies which slogan is ‘creative in beating HIV’. We will support them in buying a new mobile clinic for their work in South Africa.

At Meta Connect, Mark Zuckerberg recently launched all the news that the tech giant has in store for us. In addition to various other things, the Quest 3 and the new generation of Ray-Ban Stories received a lot of attention.

With the first you turn your environment into a virtual world. The new Ray-Ban Stories have been improved in every way. A much better camera, better audio, a battery that lasts longer, a choice of more styles in more colors and, last but not least, a direct connection to Meta AI. The question is of course whether we should be happy with all those technical gadgets full of algorithms and information that you could otherwise find out yourself. For tech enthusiasts this is of course a blessing, for others like me it is a complete disaster. Soon your smartwatch or smartglasses will ensure that you never have to discover anything yourself again because the AI technology already fills in everything for you. Imagine you are going to Paris or New York for the first time.

Instead of going on an adventure and discovering the city yourself, your smart glasses will tell you, solicited or unsolicited, just about everything you can think of. Not only information about buildings or museums, for example, but also reviews of restaurants or shops. We are increasingly becoming herd animals who are more and more guided by what Mark Zuckerberg and associates think we should do. Mankind simply becomes the dumbest species ever, completely (dis)informed by what others have already thought up and invented. I'm not looking forward to it, but others might think it's fantastic. We will see. The first version of the Ray-Ban Stories was never for sale here and this second generation is currently only available in the United States.