I seem to be making this point constantly but one of the main challenges these days is finding new sources of inspiration. Looking for light at the end of the tunnel (vision) can best be brilliant when it comes from friendships, both long term and fresh. One of my brightest blasts of enduring hope and an enlightened future in this last year or so has been the recent contact made with a man named Ray Winston. Some of you might recall Ray and his Sir Winston Eyewear for the impact made on Elton John, long noted as the top Eyewear Icon and so dubbed by our readers in a special 20/20 issue on Icons a few years ago.

I was intending to do a fuller feature on Winston and his incredibly fun specs just when this pandemic moved into deadly swing now a year ago. We will go deeper soon, but in the meantime, Ray has been a constant phone source of energy and assurance. I think of his frames as a deep dive into the whimsy and FANtasy we so need right now. You will see two over these double March issues, and they both speak to Winston’s craft as an eyewear animator when it comes to putting on just the right and bright face. Elton has long thought so, and I’m right on board with that. And right here and now, I’m delivering a double THANKS to Ray with the note that there will be more to come. Let’s stick together. Let’s have some fun. And let’s remember we’re all here facing up to the reality that we love eyewear.  

–James J. Spina