Sunny editorial in Vestal Magazine

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.

Gucci has a new designer and took a completely new course with the show in Milan. Alessandro Michele's opulent spectacles had made way for a sober classic show in which the models mainly showed chic designs with many references to the brand's rich archives

The designs were beautiful and, according to the experts, very skillfully made, the decorations consisted mainly of glitter and the colors were always stylishly combined into a harmonious whole that never shocked or caused big oohs and aahs. Of course, we also pay particular attention to the glasses. Frames were not shown anyway and far fewer models than before wore sunglasses and always the same, chic model. In short, Gucci opts for a completely new style and a striking trend break that we will undoubtedly also see in the (sun)glasses collections.

Amazon calls it 'Alexa-powered smart glasses' and means a series of frames and sunglasses that allow you to easily control Alexa. These (sun)glasses already existed but have now been improved with new functions.

The designs are more stylish and by adding two designs from the popular eyewear brand Carrera, Amazon shows what is possible now and in the future. With your ECHO (sun) glasses on, you can give Alexa commands anytime and anywhere, ask questions, listen to music, turn the lights on or off and much more. Read the whole story on the Amazon website and you'll be up to date again!