A conversation with the creative team behind Freckle Eyewear's boldest campaign yet.
Johannesburg doesn't need an introduction. It has a pulse, a personality, and a way of moving through fashion that is entirely its own. Shades in the City, the new campaign from Freckle Eyewear, knows this. It doesn't place the city as a backdrop. It places it centre stage, alongside two of South Africa's most compelling cultural figures, award-winning fashion and lifestyle influencer Siya Bani and football icon Teko Modise. We sat down with the creative team behind the campaign to find out how it came together, what the city gave them, and what the frames mean when the city itself is wearing them.
How Jo'burg's Landmarks Became the Campaign's Visual Language
Q: The campaign features some very specific Johannesburg locations: Nelson Mandela Square, Melrose Gallery, the Gautrain, and Alto Bar. How did the team go about selecting these spots, and what did each one need to feel like on camera to capture the city's personality?
"Location selection was never about convenience. It was about character. Each space we chose had to carry its own story, its own social register, its own mood. The city has a thousand faces, and this campaign needed to show at least four of them with complete conviction.
Nelson Mandela Square was the natural anchor. It's monumental, internationally recognised, and unmistakably Johannesburg. There's a grandeur to it that doesn't require explanation. On camera, it needed to feel like an arrival, like the moment someone enters a space and immediately commands it. The frames worn there had to carry the same energy: confident, wide, declarative.
Melrose Gallery brought a different frequency entirely. It's a creative space, quieter in its ambition but deeper in its texture. We needed it to feel considered, almost intimate. The kind of place where style is studied rather than performed. It gave us the editorial quality, the light, the sense that fashion here is a language spoken fluently rather than shouted.
The Gautrain was the decision that surprised people most. But it made complete sense to us. It's Africa's first high-speed train. It represents movement, modernity, and ambition. Its infrastructure as aspiration. Shooting there placed the campaign in a conversation about what this city is becoming, not just what it already is. The frames in those shots needed to look like they belonged to someone going somewhere meaningful.
Alto Bar was the close of the day: refined social atmosphere, beautiful light, elevated company. The frames worn there were the ones that carry an evening with ease. Not loud, not trying. Just right. Each location gave us a different emotional register for the same fundamental question: what does it look like when style lives in this city?"
The Pairing That Defined the Campaign's Creative Direction
Q: Siya Bani and Teko Modise come from very different worlds: fashion and football. What was the creative thinking behind pairing these two, and how did their individual energies shape the visual direction of the campaign?
"The pairing was deliberate precisely because of the contrast. Fashion often speaks to a self-selecting audience, people already inside the conversation. Sport reaches everywhere. When you put those two energy systems in the same frame, you create something that belongs to a much larger world.
Siya Bani represents a new generation of South African tastemakers. She has built a body of work that is distinctly her own, a point of view that doesn't defer, doesn't apologise, and consistently sets the tone rather than following it. Her presence in the campaign brought an editorial intelligence that sharpened every shot she was part of.
Teko Modise brings cultural weight of a different order. There is a timelessness to his appeal that transcends sport, the kind of presence that an entire generation grew up watching and continues to respect. When someone like Teko wears a pair of frames, they stop being an accessory and start being a statement about who you are off the pitch, in the city, in your own story.
Together, they created a visual dynamic that neither could have produced alone. The campaign wasn't about fashion meeting sport. It was about confidence meeting confidence, two individuals who both know exactly who they are, and what that looks like when they move through the same spaces."
What Makes Jo'burg's Style Scene Distinct
Q: Johannesburg is described as "one of Africa's most dynamic style capitals." What makes Jo'burg's style scene distinct from other major African cities, and how does Freckle Eyewear fit into that landscape?
"Jo'burg's style is not borrowed. That's the most important thing to understand about it. Lagos brings flamboyance and cultural depth rooted in tradition and celebration. Nairobi is precise and increasingly global in its references. Cape Town has a coastal ease and a particular relationship with creative subculture. Johannesburg has something different: an urban restlessness, a hunger for what's next, and a deep pride in where it comes from at the same time.
The city dresses like it has places to be. There's an ambition to Jo'burg style that is distinctly its own. It moves between boardroom sophistication and late-night confidence in a single outfit. It respects luxury but doesn't perform it. It knows the names, knows the brands, and wears them with the kind of ease that only comes from genuine fluency, not aspiration.
Freckle Eyewear fits into that landscape because it operates on the same axis. We curate designer sunglasses and luxury eyewear for people who already know who they are. We're not here to tell Johannesburg what sophisticated looks like. We're here to offer the frames that a sophisticated city reaches for. That relationship works because it's honest. This city doesn't need to be impressed. It needs to be met at its level. That's what this campaign was built to do."
How the Eyewear Range Guided the Campaign's Day-to-Night Arc
Q: The campaign spans everything from daytime sophistication to evening elegance. How did the eyewear range guide those transitions? Were certain frames chosen with specific locations or times of day in mind?
The frames were never decorative decisions. They were directional ones. Every pairing of frame and location was a deliberate choice about what that moment in the city's day demands of you, and what the right pair of designer sunglasses communicates when you're there.
Daytime required frames with structure and authority. Clean geometric lines, refined materials, shapes that hold their presence in full light without needing drama to announce themselves. The looks shot at Nelson Mandela Square and on the Gautrain were built around frames that could carry weight in broad daylight, pieces that read as intentional from a distance before you've even made eye contact.
The transition to evening was where the curation became most interesting. After dark, the frames that work are the ones that bring character rather than utility. Slim shapes, darker finishes, materials with a tactile quality that catches low light rather than fighting it. Alto Bar was designed to show exactly this: eyewear that remains in the look after sunset, not because you need UV protection, but because the right frame at the right hour is simply the final word on who you are that evening.
The range we showcased reflects the same philosophy: from refined everyday classics that hold a daytime look together, to bolder statement frames that own an evening. The key was ensuring the transitions felt natural on screen, the kind of style fluency that the city's most intentional dressers already live.
Connecting Jo'burg's Story to a Global Audience
Q: Shades in the City is described as more than just a fashion campaign; it's a tribute to Johannesburg's people and culture. How do you want audiences who aren't from Jo'burg to connect with that story?
"The specificity of Jo'burg is exactly what makes it universal. That might sound like a contradiction, but it isn't. When a campaign is rooted in a real place, with real people and real locations, it communicates something that generic aspirational content never can: truth. Audiences anywhere in the world recognise authenticity, even when the specific geography is unfamiliar.
What we want someone in Paris, in Lagos, in London, in New York to feel when they encounter this campaign is not necessarily "I know that city." We want them to feel "I know that confidence." That recognition of a person who moves through their world with complete ownership of who they are. That's not a Johannesburg story. That's a human story. Jo'burg just happens to tell it with exceptional style.
And for those who do know the city? For the South African audience watching Siya and Teko move through spaces they've been to, that recognition is something deeper. It's the feeling of seeing yourself in a luxury fashion campaign, not positioned as the subject of observation, but as the subject of celebration. That's what this campaign was ultimately built to do."
The Creative Process: What the Campaign Demanded
Q: Walk us through the overall creative direction. What was the single biggest challenge in bringing Shades in the City to life, and what are you most proud of in the final result?
"The biggest challenge was restraint. Johannesburg gives you so much to work with. The light, the architecture, the people, the energy. The temptation is always to use all of it. The discipline is knowing which elements to let breathe, which moments to let stand on their own, and where to trust the frame to carry the image.
We were building something that needed to feel cinematic without feeling produced. There's a particular quality to Jo'burg's best visual stories. They have grit and grace at the same time. They're elevated without being untouchable. Getting that balance on camera, across multiple locations, with two very different personalities, and within a brand world that has its own distinct aesthetic, demanded a level of creative precision that was genuinely challenging.
What we're most proud of is that the city comes through as a protagonist, not a setting. Johannesburg isn't where the campaign happens. It's why the campaign exists. That distinction is visible in every frame."
Style Notes from the Campaign: What the Looks Are Teaching
Q: For the Freckle Eyewear audience watching the campaign and taking style notes: what are the three most practical lessons from the looks and the locations?
One: Dress for where you're going, not just where you are. Every location in this campaign demanded a different register. The lesson isn't about changing your entire outfit between spots. It's about choosing pieces, including your frames, that can carry you through multiple contexts without losing their authority. Investment-level eyewear from houses like Gucci, Tom Ford, Zegna, or Bottega Veneta does this by design.
Two: Let the city set the standard. Johannesburg's style is city-scaled. It moves fast, it reads fast, and it rewards decisiveness. The people who turn heads here aren't the most dressed. They're the most decisive. Choose one strong element per look and commit to it completely. The right frame paired with a clean silhouette will always outperform a complicated outfit with the wrong accessories.
Three: Understand the difference between dressing for the day and dressing through it. The campaign's day-to-night arc wasn't accidental. Johannesburg requires that fluency. Your frames should be part of that equation: structured and architectural for daylight, quieter and more character-driven after dark. Knowing which pair belongs where is the kind of style intelligence this city runs on.
What the Lens Reveals
Style in this city has never been about following a trend calendar. It's been about reading the room, the rooftop, the gallery, the train, the bar, and knowing exactly who you are in each one.
Shades in the City captured that. In four locations, with two of the city's most compelling individuals, and with a collection of designer sunglasses that understood the assignment before the cameras rolled.
The campaign featured a curated selection from the Freckle Eyewear range, each chosen to reflect both the personalities of the campaign's faces and the specific visual register of each location. The guiding principle across every choice was the same: the frame should feel inevitable, not added.
A few directions that defined the campaign's eyewear story:
Architectural precision. Frames with clean, defined geometry. Rectangular structures, sharp angles, and finishes that reflect the city's modern edge. Best paired with tailored silhouettes and worn in spaces where the light is strong.
Heritage craftsmanship. Pieces from houses with decades of design language behind them. The kind of frame that carries weight before it's even on your face. Paired with elevated daywear, worn at the kind of venue where detail gets noticed.
After-dark confidence. Slim profiles, darker lenses, minimal branding. Frames that don't compete with the evening. They complete it.
Browse the full Freckle Eyewear collection to find the frame that belongs in your version of this city.
