Thirty years of Spectacle World

Adele qualified as an optometrist in 1991, and just three years later, in 1994, she founded Spectacle World. Over the next 30 years she built it into a destination unlike any ordinary practice — a place where clinical expertise met fashion, colour and individual style.

In 2025, Adele sold Spectacle World to the Mullers Optometrists Group. But she hasn’t stepped away. She continues to practise at Spectacle World – powered by Mullers Optometrists, still caring for patients and styling eyewear every day. The ownership has changed; her hands-on commitment hasn’t.

Clinical expertise first

Everything Adele does starts with optometry. Her focus is on helping patients achieve clear, comfortable vision through attentive care, informed recommendations and solutions suited to each person’s needs.

The art of the right frame

Adele’s expertise goes well beyond the eye test. She completed specialist training through the Eyewear Styling Academy in London and Dominant Colour Analysis training through Colour Me Beautiful.

That training shapes a distinctive approach. When recommending frames, Adele considers each client’s face shape, colouring, personality, profession, lifestyle and the image they want to project. To her, spectacles are neither just a medical device nor just an accessory — they sit at the centre of your face, and they influence how you look, feel and present yourself.

“I don’t simply want to sell someone a frame. I want to find the solution that helps that person see well, look wonderful and feel completely themselves.”

A business built on understanding people

Adele’s entrepreneurial success comes from understanding people and responding to what they truly need. In her view, a good business should do more than sell products — it should identify needs, solve problems and create real value. That philosophy set Spectacle World apart from the day it opened.

Family and legacy

Adele’s love of entrepreneurship lives on in her daughter, Danyella, who is building her own business in marketing and copywriting. Adele is proud of the independent path Danyella is carving out, and the two share a fascination with communication and understanding what people really need.

For Adele, professional achievement is only part of a lasting legacy. Empowering the next generation to grow in confidence, independence and purpose matters just as much.

Thoughtful, thankful and giving back

Adele believes success comes with a responsibility to stay thoughtful, thankful and aware of the people and communities who made the journey possible. Through initiatives including Mandela Day, she has given her time to acts of service and kindness — practical, sincere contributions that prove giving back doesn’t always need grand gestures.

Her guiding principle:

Be proud of what you have achieved, be thankful for what you have received, and never become too busy to see where you can help someone else.

A woman should never stop evolving

Adele is a passionate advocate for women who keep growing, adapting and chasing new opportunities at every stage of life. She believes age should never limit a woman’s relevance, ambition, beauty or potential — every stage is a chance to learn, evolve and BLOOM.

Through fashion, colour, dance, travel, creativity, public speaking and lifelong learning, Adele lives that message herself. To women entering the second half of life, she says this: experience should never make you smaller. It should give you the confidence to become more authentically yourself.

Influence with purpose

In 2026, Adele received a Woman of Wonder Award and was selected as a Brand Ambassador for the Influential Awards in Cape Town, in recognition of her professional contribution, leadership and community involvement.

But for Adele, influence isn’t measured in awards or titles. It is measured in the confidence and possibility you inspire in others.

“True influence is when the way you live your life gives someone else the courage to believe that more is possible for theirs.”

Or, as she puts it more simply: “If you don’t own it, you won’t know it.”

Why Adele Camarena is Influential

With more than three decades of optometric expertise, a business built on genuine care, a gift for helping people express who they are, and a message that no woman should ever stop growing, Adele Camarena embodies what the Influential Awards stand for.

She will take her place as a Brand Ambassador at the Influential Awards 2026 – Cape Town, taking place on Sunday, 29 November 2026 at the Joseph Stone Auditorium, Athlone.

For Adele, this chapter isn’t about slowing down — it’s about continuing to contribute, evolve and lead. Because there is no expiry date on blooming.

Congratulations, Adele — and welcome.

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Connect with Adele Camarena

Spectacle World – powered by Mullers Optometrists