Where style meets the gift of sight
The eyewear collection that fuses fashion, culture and function with helping our Pacific neighbours
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Finding the perfect eyewear is about more than protecting your eyes’ health. Pick the right frames, and the flawless combination of style, fashion and personality makes a statement whenever you leave the house.
Not every pair of glasses, however, can also support our Pacific whānau to receive the eye care needed to help end avoidable blindness.
In collaboration with leading New Zealand tā moko artist Mokonuiarangi (Moko) Smith, the 2024 Specsavers limited-edition collection introduces an eyewear design embedded in tradition, culture and tikanga. Drawing inspiration from the strong Pacific and Māori connection with pounamu, the frames together with the limited-edition case and lens cloth also encapsulate a modern sense of style and personality.
In the words of the artist himself, they’re “attention-grabbing and funky” and draw on the ancestral colour tones of pounamu to bring a “uniquely Aotearoa New Zealand feel.”
Plus, the sale of each frame will contribute $25 towards Specsavers' goal to donate $60,000 this year to aid The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ in its bid to end avoidable blindness across the Pacific.
Embracing culture and heritage through art
Based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Mokonuiarangi (Moko) Smith is an established tā moko artist and tattooist, who embraces the traditional hand-tapping tattoo tools of Aotearoa New Zealand.
A descendant of Tainui, Te Arawa, Takitimu and Mataatua Waka, Moko is passionate about keeping those tools alive within Māori and the wider Pacific communities. That deep-seated generational sense of culture has helped inspire the design for this year’s limited-edition collection. Plus, he wanted to create something he’d love wearing himself.
Those familiar with previous collections may recognise Moko. In 2023, he became the first indigenous Māori artist to collaborate with Specsavers in a bid to help our Pacific neighbours through art, fashion and eyewear. Even then, he’d already envisioned a follow-up design.
As a tattoo artist, Moko finds drawing directly onto the body allows “the body to have its direction,” so he followed a similar process, creating directly onto blank frames.
“I could shape my ideas around a physical object and make my decisions based on the narrative I had chosen and the aesthetics I was trying to create,” he says.
That narrative and aesthetic is inspired - both in colour and design - by pounamu and its significance within the Māori and Pacific communities. The result is a unique and stylish ode to culture, tradition, a strong affiliation with generations past and future, and Māori practices and people.
The green variegated tortoise acetate highlights “the flecked inclusions of the pounamu and the beauty of light shining through it.”
A stone not just used to mark superior wood carvings and canoes and create jewellery to adorn high chiefs, the hunt for pounamu also inspired the journeys of Māori elders who set up life in Aotearoa New Zealand.
It’s these sojourns of early generations that inspired the Ara Moana pattern featured on both the lens cloth and case of the 2024 limited-edition frames.
On the glasses themselves, Moko has given a nod to the “many generations before us and those yet to come” with notching on the temples.
“The Karu o te Whenua pattern points to the many communities holding fast to their cultural ways and the role Specsavers has played in helping promote eye health within these communities,” he says.
The green variegated tortoise acetate highlights “the flecked inclusions of the pounamu and the beauty of light shining through it.”
The green variegated tortoise acetate highlights “the flecked inclusions of the pounamu and the beauty of light shining through it.”
Embracing generations past to create a better future in the Pacific
By joining artistic forces with one of Aotearoa’s leading tā moko artists, Specsavers has produced more than an exclusive collection celebrating Aotearoa and the Pacific. The 2024 limited-edition collection continues Specsavers’ long-standing dedication to supporting The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ, having raised more than $1 million in the past decade.
It’s this partnership that has brought unique collaborations with some of New Zealand’s most loved artists to create inspiring and stunning sun and prescription glasses. The initiative has given a sense of power to the beauty of sight - both through the design of the frame and the determination to help end avoidable blindness in the Pacific.
The 2024 collection is the sixth since the collaboration began in 2016. Renowned Kiwi artist Dick Frizzell brought his iconic style to frames in 2016 and 2019, and the abstract paintings of Samoan artist Fatu Feu’u came to life with the collections in 2020 and 2022.
Moko became the first indigenous Māori artist to put his work into the collection in 2023.
With the 2024 collection, Specsavers Head of Sustainability, Cathy Rennie Matos, says the company is “so excited to launch another range of limited-edition frames with Moko Smith that are not only beautiful, but signify something special to the Pacific and Māori communities.”
As a tattoo artist, Moko finds drawing directly onto the body allows “the body to have its direction,” so he followed a similar process, creating directly onto blank frames.
As a tattoo artist, Moko finds drawing directly onto the body allows “the body to have its direction,” so he followed a similar process, creating directly onto blank frames.
Helping our Pacific neighbours to see the world
New Zealand has always shared a sense of whānau and bond with our neighbouring Pacific nations.
New Zealand shares a strong bond with Pacific nations, and since 2002, The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ has provided accessible eye care across the region. Globally, 9 out of 10 people who are blind, don’t need to be and the Foundation is working hard to combat this in the Pacific.
Last year alone, more than 10,000 glasses were given within Pacific communities, and over 80,000 eye consultations were made possible, as well as nearly 6,000 eye surgeries. The charity is also enabling and supporting graduates from across the Pacific to become fully qualified eye doctors and nurses in their own communities.
With the Pacific region having some of the highest rates of avoidable blindness, The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ Philanthropy and Communications Director, Katie Hart, says the Foundation is committed to working with Pacific Governments, Ministries of Health and Universities to ensure that, “everyone, no matter where they live, can access high quality eye care”.
This year, people in New Zealand can help Specsavers reach their goal of donating $60,000, and the money raised will support The Foundation to fund initiatives such as “essential equipment, training eye care specialists, outreaches to remote communities and much needed research,” says Hart.
“This will contribute towards the resources our Pacific teams need to continue restoring sight and developing the local eye care workforce, whilst also strengthening eye health systems.”
Importantly, she says, “this will change the lives of thousands of people for many years to come.”
With every purchase of the exclusive, stylish and functional pair of sun or prescription glasses from the limited-edition range, $25 will be donated to The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ to help fund crucial eye health and training within the communities in need.
The sale of each frame will donate $25 to The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ in its bid to end avoidable blindness across the Pacific.
The sale of each frame will donate $25 to The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ in its bid to end avoidable blindness across the Pacific.
Celebrate culture, tradition and accessible eye care in style
Whether already on the hunt for a pair of eye-catching sun or prescription glasses for summer, or looking to support the partnership between Specsavers and The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ to end avoidable blindness across the Pacific, the 2024 limited-edition collection, says Moko, are ideal as both a day-to-day frame or for special occasions.
“People who are generally playing it safe and wearing black frame glasses, this is a great graduation into something more energetic and stylish," he says.
$25 from the sale of each frame goes to The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ to help end avoidable blindness in the Pacific.
Priced from $169 for 2 pairs single-vision, the range includes two frames - one optical and one Sun exclusively in-store or online at specsavers.co.nz.
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