See It, Hear It, Play It, Wear It

If you’ve got it, flaunt it. Just don’t forget the charger

By Dana Carman
CTW Features

In the old days, say, five years ago, high fashion and high technology were mediums that did not mix. Loving your cell phone or computer was not like loving that great new bag, super cute slides or fantastic jeans that made your butt look like that. After all, to pay for those Manolos, fashion maven Carrie Bradshaw used a payphone until Season 4 of “Sex and the City.” But, when Carrie answered her cell phone in the last scene of the series, just two years later, it was pink and encrusted with jewels – a fashion statement.

“Since the dawn of time, women have used what they wear to make a statement about themselves, primarily with clothing, apparel and jewelry,” says Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, a retail and consumer consultancy based in New Canaan, Conn. “In the last few years, people are making those statements with technology. It’s not just what you’re wearing but what you’re using. And much of it is wearable these days.”

Take, for example, the latest in Bluetooth headset technology, the Jawbone by Aliph ($120). Billed as “ear wear,” the piece sports a sleek, stylish design that is “as important as the technology,” says Hosain Rahman, founder and CEO of Aliph. “You wear it on your face, so it’s like a pair of sunglasses. It’s designed to wear.” It’s also designed to work using technology that eliminates background noise, and it adjusts speaker volume throughout the call. The outer shield is curved to match the natural curve of the face. The inner surface is made of medical-grade plastic, which provides a soft feel. “We wanted to create a device that people aren’t embarrassed to wear,” Rahman says.

After all, technology used to be for computer geeks, right? No longer. “We’re at a point in time in which technology doesn’t really have a ‘place’ in our lives any more than it actually shapes our life,” says Mark Loncar, a partner at Acme Made, which designs stylish and functional products to protect computers and other devices. “It is now a means for us to be who each of us want to be.”

You can’t have a discussion of the fashionable technology trend without mentioning the giant: Apple. “Apple is considered one of the top, if not the top, design brands in the world,” Loncar says. Johnson backs that up with numbers: “It took Apple two years to sell the first million iPods,” Johnson says. “It sold the first million iPhones in 74 days.”

Apple’s iPhone may not be flip-phone fabulous, but the beauty of Apple is that it doesn’t have to be. The iPhone ($399) is trendy because it just is, and it combines the capabilities of a phone (with touch-screen technology), the Internet and an iPod. Apple also touts a new, smaller, thinner, square version of the nano ($149 for 4GB, $199 for 8GB) as “dressed to impress.” It comes in five colors and also plays videos.

Color is one way that formerly “boring” technology products have attempted to jump on board the techno-fashion train. “Look at the colors and styles of phones that there are now,” Loncar says. In similar fashion, Dell recently added the Inspiron 1420 to its line of notebooks. The Inspiron 1420 (beginning at $829) is Dell’s smallest, lightest laptop and comes in eight “vibrant colors.” At press time, a free Timbuk2 messenger bag was offered along

with purchase of the 1420, further adding to its “cool” factor. This fall Sony released a limited edition of its VAIO laptop emblazoned with two graphic designs by New York artist Maya Hayuk ($2,500). The artist also designed a matching desktop interface for the computer.

But it’s not just technology companies that are sassing up the products in order to make them more fashionable. The fashion industry is responding to the emphasis on technology and creating complementary products to cash in on some of those consumer dollars. According to Johnson, accessories in general, such as handbags, have been beating out apparel for consumers’ money and fashion-forward technology accessories, like laptop bags, are where the technology-meets-fashion trend merges.

One such company is Liz Claiborne, which recently announced the creation of its Liz Claiborne Accessories line of consumer-electronics accessories sold exclusively at Best Buy. The collection will include laptop bags and sleeves, business totes, cell phone cases, MP3 player cases and camera cases in a variety of styles. According to Fran Lukas, vice president and general manager of Liz Claiborne Accessories, the new line provides women with “fashionable and functional tech accessories to complement their personal style.”

Defining one’s personal style through technology (and the requisite accessories) has become a big emphasis for companies. “The type of electronic devices an individual chooses – from brand to outward appearance to functionality – can say much about one’s own personal sense of style,” Lukas says. “Technology is fully integrated in our lives and, as such, reflects much about who we are and how we want to be seen.”

The accessories we chose to hold those items are another element of personalization, says Anne Brouwer, senior partner with McMillan Doolittle, a Chicago-based retail-consulting firm. “If everyone has the same phone, I can personalize mine by putting it in a case,” she says.

Many would agree that in the case of style, less can be more. Cell phones are already colorful, so what can you do to differentiate yours from the rest of the pack? Add a small but tasteful charm to it – the higher end, the better. Coach offers a line of cell-phone charms that range in style from a classic leather loop to a jewel-encrusted horseshoe and range in price from $28 to $48.

Swarovski, the crystal company, also offers a line of cell phone charms, including classics like Mickey Mouse or Tinkerbell, that range in price from $63 to $85. But it’s the company’s recent partnering with consumer-electronics brand Philips that perhaps illustrates best the trend of fusing technology and fashion. The two companies collaborated on a line of crystal-studded ear buds and flash drives, called Active Crystals. Two USB drives shaped like hearts (Heart Beat and Heart Ware, $178) are on silver silk cords and can be worn as necklaces when they’re not in use on a computer. Two shaped like locks can be clipped on to a key ring (Lock In and Lock Out, $178). All feature 1GB of storage. The ear buds ($79 - $148) sparkle with a jewel in each ear. The Amazone ($148) has a stainless-steel neck strap with an MP3 plug-in attachment.

Can a miniature, jewel-encrusted, combination laptop-phone-MP3 player disguised as a handbag with storage capacity for lipstick and gigabytes be far behind? One can only hope.

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