A decade ago, smart glasses were a punchline of future fantasies. Today, they’re real; with better style, smarter AI, and a serious push from fashion’s elite. Google, Meta, Kering, Ray Ban, and Gentle Monster are each trying to sell us a vision of the future but this time, they are putting it on our faces.
Nonetheless, the question stands: do we need them, or do we want to be seen with them?
KHAMSA believes there is real magic to be made at the intersection of technology and fashion. Call it techno-fashion, if you will. Yet, with every drop, there is a deeper conversation to be had.
In this piece, we dive into the hottest new drops but ask the hottest questions, too.
Tech Draped in Taste
Let’s start with Meta x Ray-Ban. Their newest drop in the UAE was part launch, part lifestyle spectacle. Picture Gitano Beach Club lit up in Ray-Ban red, influencers like Joelle Mardinian and Yusra Mardini posing, DJs spinning meanwhile, guests test smart glasses that livestream to Instagram, take 12MP POV photos, and answer questions with Meta AI.
Ray-Ban Meta’s features are solid: open-ear audio, discreet five-mic systems, hands-free content creation, live translation. All starting at AED 1,330.
They’re sleek, comfortable and they update over time. But beneath the glamour is a subtler story: a product that literally frames constant connectivity as cultural currency. This is tech that is on you, not just used by you.
Google’s collaboration with Gentle Monster shifts the focus to aesthetic innovation. Announced at I/O 2025, it emphasizes “boundary-pushing aesthetic” and “creative vision,” buzzwords that suit Gentle Monster’s avant-garde ethos. Their Android XR powered glasses aim to be wearable, desirable, and seamlessly part of everyday life. We think it will be less about functions and more about the look.
Then there’s Google x Kering Eyewear: the most explicitly luxury-leaning collab. Kering brings couture-level eyewear design, while Google contributes AI-driven, context-aware XR features. Their pitch? A masterfully designed, intelligent accessory that “redefines how we interact with both the real and virtual worlds.” It’s fashion as interface, not just ornament.
While Meta, Google, Ray-Ban, Kering, and Gentle Monster are leading the fashion-tech spotlight, they’re not alone in shaping the smart glasses race.
Another prominent brand is Snap Inc., which has been quietly and consistently pushing boundaries with their Spectacles 4 glasses. These glasses are also built for the AR experience, featuring dual cameras and immersive Lens filters. Unlike most consumer-focused drops, Snap’s AR glasses are still in the hands of creators and developers. Some have vouched for them as experimental canvases for digital storytelling, offering a glimpse into how AR might redefine personal expression.
The Aesthetic of Utility, or the Utility of Aesthetic?
This new generation of smart glasses blends form and function more gracefully than ever before. However, that very harmony makes them all the harder to question.
Are they solving real problems, or are they offering novelty wrapped in ‘necessity’?
Ask yourself: do you need a live translation feature when you’re abroad or do you just want to look like someone who can? Does Meta AI make your life easier, or does it subtly tether you to a content cycle you can’t switch off?
We have been here before, smartphones were tools that became lifestyle objects. Now, are smart glasses arriving as lifestyle objects masquerading as essential tools?
The Fashion of Consumption
Even more so, this is tech doing what it always does best; the timing of it all. We’re in a post-pandemic economy where identity, productivity, and digital performance are increasingly merged and are very difficult to keep up with. The face is now a canvas of branding, beauty filters, Face ID, stories and now smart glasses are entering that frame as luxury’s latest upgrade.
These partnerships, Meta with Ray-Ban, Google with Gentle Monster and Kering, may definitely be selling innovative utility, but they are also selling status, frictionless convenience, and the fantasy of being ahead of the curve.
In this way, smart glasses could become more about being seen rather than seeing.
So yes, smart glasses may very well become the next it accessory. But consider us here at KHAMSA, as loving and caring older siblings and let us remind ourselves to not confuse the “it ” with the essential. And like all trends that blur reality and representation, they come with a cost: social, psychological, and environmental.
As we stare into this future, the reflection looking back might not be very smart, but just as scripted.
