Meta will reportedly debut a prototype of its first-ever augmented-reality glasses Wednesday, but before that even happens, it may have already disrupted the eyewear market.

The new glasses — set to be unveiled at Meta’s annual Connect conference for developers — are expected to be capable of imposing a digital layer on the wearer’s physical surroundings. The catch is they aren’t planned to hit the market before 2027, according to a report last month by The Information. Similarly, Snap last week unveiled the latest generation of its AR Spectacles, but only developers who rent them for $99 a month will have access.

The unavailability of these products underscores how distant AR glasses and Mark Zuckerberg’s prophesied metaverse remain. In the meantime, another pair of AR-free Meta eyewear could prove as — or more — pivotal to the rise of smart glasses.

The Ray-Ban Meta glasses created in partnership with EssilorLuxottica have been a bigger hit than the companies themselves anticipated. In a July earnings call, Zuckerberg said demand continued outpacing their ability to build them. Market intelligence firm IDC estimates Meta has shipped more than 700,000 pairs, while Bernstein analyst Luca Solca surmised earlier this year that revenue from the glasses could approach $100 million in EssilorLuxottica’s 2024 fiscal year. Indicating their confidence in the future, Meta and EssilorLuxottica announced a long-term extension of their partnership last week.

The $299 glasses, which are widely available through select EssilorLuxottica retailers including LensCrafters and Sunglass Hut, as well as through the Ray-Ban and Meta websites, could be fairly deemed the first commercially successful smart glasses, marking a potential turning point for a category that the tech world has been trying — and failing — to popularise for more than a decade. If they are the start of a new era, it could signal upheaval for eyewear.

“Mainstream smart glasses are bound to be as disruptive as the rise of smartwatches — and the entry of Big Tech firms is likely to cause more pain than joy to incumbents,” Solca wrote in a June research note.

The product that sparked the turbulence in the watch market was the Apple Watch. It took time to gather momentum after its initial launch in 2015, years after the first rudimentary smartwatches first defined the category. But by 2019 Apple was estimated to be selling more units than the entire Swiss watch industry. It wasn’t until 2023 that Morgan Stanley decided the Apple Watch was no longer a threat to Swiss timepieces after the industry realigned around higher-end products.

Solca noted that there aren’t perfect parallels to be drawn between watches and eyewear, but the point stood that glasses are “destined to become the second major personal product category to be digitally disrupted,” largely because there remains need for a product that lets consumers access the internet while on the move. Phones are currently our preferred mobile device, but they occupy our hands and require our focus to the exclusion of our environment, which can be inconvenient or even dangerous at times. Glasses provide an ideal form for this new technology.

The key question is whether the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which offer capabilities like high-quality audio and photography in classic Ray-Ban styles, are the equivalent of the Apple Watch in smart glasses.

Eyewear’s Big Disruptor?

“I don’t share the premise,” Solca wrote in an email. In his view, the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, while an “excellent approximation,” are still too limited in their abilities. When the disruptive new entrant does appear, it will likely have hundreds or thousands of apps available. He also expects AR will be key, combined with AI. “The revolution will come from aesthetically and culturally acceptable products with significant functionality,” he said. That could still be many years away.

There are a number of things the Ray-Ban Meta glasses already get right, according to owners who rave about them online.

“They are practical and they’re stylish,” said Michael Miraflor, chief brand officer at venture-capital firm Hannah Grey VC, who bought a pair earlier this year after reading reviews and seeing people wearing them at events. The glasses are a companion to his phone, not a replacement for it. He uses them frequently to take calls, pointing to the audio quality and saying he now reaches for them about half the time in situations where he would have previously defaulted to his Apple AirPods.

Others, meanwhile, have praised the glasses’ camera, which can be used to take photos, video or even to live stream directly to Instagram. Earlier this year, Meta also introduced multimodal AI features that allow the glasses to visually recognise objects and provide information on them. Miraflor said he wouldn’t rely on the AI for anything critical (and Wired detailed its struggles to translate languages). But it generally works in his experience, and he likes being able to get information on things like trees or landmarks while hiking around Los Angeles, without having to take out his phone.

“The core functionality of the device is pretty good,” he said. “It’s way better than just ‘good enough.’”

Maybe the most compelling feature, however, is that they just look like a pair of Ray-Bans.

Previous generations of smart glasses tended to have either minimal capabilities, or else they were bulky in order to house all the components needed to make them work. The first-generation Ray-Ban Stories managed to package everything into a regular-looking pair of sunglasses, but functionality was still limited.

The Ray-Ban Meta glasses have begun addressing both issues, with better audio, a better camera and AI — and more capabilities and frame options still likely to come in the future. It’s easy to imagine EssilorLuxottica extending the partnership to other brands in its portfolio, too.

But while the company looks to be setting itself up to be part of any disruption by smart glasses, its safety isn’t guaranteed. Solca pointed out that tech giants like Apple, which recently unveiled its first headset, could choose to enter the smart glasses category independently, knocking even incumbents like EssilorLuxottica off balance. The eyewear giant might be hedging against a scenario where it faces a Big Tech competitor on its own through its long-term deal with Meta.

In an emailed statement, Rocco Basilico, EssilorLuxottica’s chief wearables officer, said they’re leading the eyewear industry into the future through the deal. “Our Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are a testament of creating a successful new category in eyewear and it’s only the beginning of where the partnership can go. Just as smart watches revolutionised the way we interact with technology, we see smart glasses as an opportunity to blend style with functionality thus creating more social acceptability.”

“Social acceptability” could prove difficult to ensure as companies try to enable AR. To fit the processors, sensors, displays and batteries — not to mention speakers if you want audio — requires a ludicrously capacious frame, Snap’s new AR glasses being an illustration of the challenge. (A former Snap design engineer who worked on the glasses called them “obviously bad.”)

Miraflor said he wouldn’t personally want AR capabilities at the expense of the look of the glasses. He’s bought other extended-reality devices in the past and has either returned them or left them collecting dust on a shelf. In fact, one thing he likes about the current iteration of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses is that they aren’t trying to do too much, keeping the Ray-Ban form factor intact and the glasses uncomplicated.

“If they shrink that AR functionality down to the point where they can hack all of that processing power into something that does look like a regular pair of sunglasses, then sure, I’ll try it out,” he said. “But I wouldn’t compromise the form factor to fit in something that is a bit more advanced that is not really that practical for day-to-day use.”

Italy’s antitrust agency has launched an investigation into a Dublin-based company that operates Shein’s website and app over possible misleading environmental claims made on the fast-fashion retailer’s website.

The investigation targets Infinite Styles Services CO. Limited and accuses Shein’s website of trying “to convey an image of production and commercial sustainability of its garments through generic, vague, confusing and/or misleading environmental claims,” Italy’s antitrust authority said in a statement.

Shein said it is “ready to cooperate openly with relevant Italian authorities, providing the necessary support and information to address any inquiries.”

The Italian authority said that some of the information on the clothing collection ‘evoluSHEIN,’ declared to be sustainable, could mislead consumers about the amount of “green” fabrics used, while also failing to inform them about the fact the garments cannot be further recycled.

It also said that Shein’s website appears to emphasise a commitment to decarbonisation which seems to be contradicted by the increase in greenhouse gas emissions shown in Shein’s sustainability reports for 2022 and 2023.

Founded in China, Shein is known for its cheap tops and dresses. Its treatment of workers and environmental record have come under increased scrutiny following reports that it could list its shares in London.

Under European Union anti-greenwashing regulations that came into force this year and will apply in all member states in two years’ time, companies are banned from making vague environmental claims about their products, like labelling them “energy efficient” or “environmentally friendly” if they don’t provide evidence to back them up.

Italy’s antitrust body, in addition to dealing with competition issues, is also in charge of consumer protection. It has recently opened investigations into online search giant Google and luxury brands Armani and Dior.

Under Italian legislation, companies found in breach of consumer rights rules face fines ranging from 5,000 euros to 10 million euros ($5,590 - $11.2 million).

Shein has its Europe, Middle East and Africa headquarters in Dublin. Its global headquarters are in Singapore.

By Helen Reid and Elisa Anzolin; Editing by Keith Weir and Mark Potter

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PARIS — Amazons. Funny that Dior and Saint Laurent, French fashion institutions which are umbilically connected, should find themselves exploring the same notion within hours of each other on the first major day of Fashion Week in Paris. And in such different ways. Anthony Vaccarello at Saint Laurent used tropes of masculine dressing to expand his women’s forcefields. Dior’s Maria Grazia Chiuri refracted ancient female myths and legends through contemporary sportswear.

She launched her show with one of the most striking gambits in recent memory. SAGG Napoli, a performance artist whose medium is archery, appeared on the catwalk looking like a 21st century version of Diana the Huntress. Throughout the presentation, she fired off arrows (in a very controlled environment, but stimulating nonetheless). Align your body with your mind to hit the target: SAGG’s message felt particularly relevant for a fashion industry that’s rather wandered off of late.

And here, it was Chiuri who was doing more wandering. As usual, before the show, she seemed bent on an interesting course, looking at the way that the classical idea of Amazons, women who defied the roles expected of them, can translate into a contemporary fashion collection from a corporate giant like Dior. Her research certainly yielded a rich tapestry of inspiration, from a 1951 Dior dress named Amazone (an asymmetrical “afternoon dress” in black wool that was tailored after a woman riding sidesaddle, or “comme une Amazone,” as the French apparently call it) to Wonder Woman, pop culture’s original Amazon. The concept of Amazonian asymmetry applied to all the looks that bared one shoulder (mythically, that made it easier to use a bow and arrow). Dior Sport, launched 75 years ago astonishingly enough, was in there somewhere with its skiwear influences and technical fabrics. So was the graphic op black/white quality of Dior sportswear in the early 70s.

Dior was deeply ingrained in the recent triumph of the Paris Olympics and Paralympics so it made sense that body-conscious athleticism was a driving force here. The knee-length gladiator trainers were a smart distillation of the Olympic spirit. Boy racer stripes and checkerboard patterns were similarly animating motifs. But, when Chiuri eventually scaled her own Olympus at show’s end with a trio of chiffon goddess dresses, I felt she’d lost the plot. Still, how would I know? My grip on reality had loosened way before.

Still, Olympus isn’t a bad place to pitch your tent, especially with your own archer firing arrows off into the void on your behalf. Anthony Vaccarello’s shows for Saint Laurent have always banked on a similar, spectacularly scheduled sense of place. We would usually be sitting in a venue with a perfect view of the Eiffel Tower and, right on cue, it would burst into its nightly light show. On Tuesday night, it was easy to imagine that something similar had been planned. The audience sat in a huge penumbral space under a giant oculus lined in gold. Above, the night sky, below, a deep navy blue floor. On past experience, you might have expected a single precisely timed shaft of moonlight to come shooting out of the heavens, illuminating the gilded oculus, giving the floor a spectral glow. But no. It rained instead, heavily. So it was umbrellas and puddles, rather than lunar illumination, that created the atmosphere.

That more melancholic effect suited the clothes Vaccarello showed just fine. The pearl-clutching shownotes imagined Yves Saint Laurent himself declaring, “I am the Saint Laurent Woman.” A Super Heroine! Vaccarello set out to illustrate that point by dressing his models in simulacra of the spectacular menswear he showed last March, which was very much based on Yves’ own precise, formal style, eyewear and all (with a sidebar of black rubber pieces to suggest the full range of YSL’s interests, his “attraction to danger” as those notes phrased it). Broad-shouldered, full-bodied, double-breasted suits were accessorised with capacious blousons, overcoats, even silken bathrobes, for an impactful take on androgynous power dressing. They were impressively uncompromising Wonder Women. But it was hard to shake the impression that it was less dressing,  more dressing up (maybe because it was only four nights ago that Matthieu Blazy showed similarly oversized tailoring for Bottega Veneta, and he actually did call it “dressing up,” as in child’s play). What does it all mean now? Those days are so long gone. Maybe that’s why heaven was weeping. Weeping also for the full-skirted silhouettes of 1976′s Russian collection, or Jerry Hall’s opiated sprawl in the 1977 campaign for ... what else? ... YSL’s Opium perfume. Visions of bygone beauty that Vaccarello also managed to summon up for his latest looks.

The equivalent of the black rubber pieces from March were the edgy concatenations of metallic brocade, lace and ribbon that closed the show. Saint Laurent was a peerless colourist. Vaccarello had already hinted at that earlier on when a combination of saffron jersey and bronze chiffon made its way down the catwalk. But for the finale, he pushed out the boat with clashes of colour so sick and fabric so rich that they were enough to consolidate defiant excess as Saint Laurent’s fashion statement for the season, along with those formidable suit-clad Amazons of course. No arrows needed here.

Dior Spring/Summer 2025

Saint Laurent Spring/Summer 2025