Freckle Eyewear closed out its "Shades in the City" campaign with an intimate after-dark celebration at Sandton's Solo Restaurant.
Freckle Eyewear founder Lihle Lamola and brand ambassador Teko Modise pose amid Solo’s dimmed backdrop, wearing designer eyewear despite the low light — a nod to the campaign’s after-dark reframe. Picture: Supplied, Taff Studios for Freckle Eyewear
There’s a version of Johannesburg that only shows up once the sun’s gone down and the guest list has been trimmed to a room’s worth of people – and that’s the version Freckle Eyewear went looking for when it moved its “Shades in the City” campaign indoors long after the sun had set on the Jozi skyline.
Where the March 2026 leg of the campaign had Siya Bunny and Teko Modise working the city’s most photographed corners – Nelson Mandela Square, The Melrose Gallery, Gautrain Station, the terrace at Alto 234 – this second act stripped all of that away.
No skyline, no daylight, no second face fronting the campaign. Just Modise, alone this time, in a private room at Solo, Sandton, for a night built around restraint rather than spectacle.
Editorial Noir
The room read more supper club than launch event as guests like Teddy Geldart, K Naomi Phakathi, Phupho Gumede and Lerato Kganyago-Ndlela showed off their best Editorial Noir style per the event invitation.
DJ Speedsta worked a set pitched for the dancefloor rather than crowd control, Don Julio cocktails moved steadily around the tables, and at the height of the evening, Charmaine Ramalope-Makhubela – the self-taught chef and founder of Glam Foodie – walked guests through a caviar tasting one mother-of-pearl spoonful (or back-of-the-hand bump) at a time.
‘Not about what you wear’
It’s a deliberate shift in register for a campaign that, at launch, was framed around movement – “not about what you wear, but how you move through the city,” as the brand put it, all confidence and unapologetic style against Johannesburg’s most recognisable backdrops.
After Dark keeps that same DNA but turns the volume down: fewer people, softer lighting, and eyewear that’s meant to be noticed across a table rather than across a city block.
Modise, a fixture in South African men’s fashion circles well beyond his football career, has become something of a shorthand for that off-duty polish – the kind of dressing that looks unbothered but rarely is.
Man of the moment
Fronting the campaign solo this time puts more weight on that reputation, and the mood of the night – hushed, warmly lit, more dinner party than PR stunt – seemed built to match it.
“Shades for me, started off as something that I love because I’ve got social anxiety. I’ve got a thing with eyes and strangers, funny enough, now, I’m on TV and I speak for a living but I don’t like speaking in public… And sekgoa (English) is not my thing,” joked Modise in an off-the-cuff speech, disarming guests by triggering waves of laughter.
He concluded by thanking the brand for working with him for years and thanked his guests, some coming in from as far as Cape Town, for showing up to celebrate him in the moment.
