Fashion
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Samsung's newest designer set, the Z240 Vittorio & Lucchino edition
While not a radical departure like the Samsung and Armani P520 adventure, the Vittorio & Lucchino handset is at least fairly red. This designer-inspired Z240 features user replaceable covers -- like we saw on the Z248 -- so unless the design work extends to an interface theme, its beauty may be only skin deep. This set will be available exclusively form Orange Spain on December 1st, with your $85 getting you tri-band GSM with 2100 MHz UMTS, a 1.3 megapixel camera, 220 x 176 internal and 128 x 32 external screens, and Bluetooth. A word of advice if you're planning on picking this number up, why not spring for a few extra housings when checking out in case you grow tired of the Twizzlers design aesthetic?[Via UnwiredView]
WSPA Fashion contest in Second Life
Depo Consulting is hosting a fashion design contest in Second Life to support the World Society of Protection of Animals. The clothing should contain some sort of reference to the charity, whether it be the charities logo or simply an animal- feel free to use your imagination! The more creative the better! There is a 50,000L$ prize to the best design entrant.Please contact Marissa Meltzer for any further information, or to send your entries. The closing date for this competition is 12/31/2007.
The Naaru's new fashion statement
World of Raids and MMO Champion both have lists of new gear on sale, come patch 2.3, in exchange for Badges of Justice from the heroic instances, and now Karazhan and Zul'Aman raid instances as well. That's exciting, of course, but let's stop and look at these pics of the new gear for a moment, shall we?Now, naturally, this gear is designed to fit with the general trollish theme of the patch, which lots of people are understandably excited about. The armor looks pretty good as armor goes, and it definitely brings some new visual design elements to the game that haven't been represented in any previous armor sets. But, let's stop and consider for a moment just where this armor is coming from. It looks like trollish Zul'Aman armor, but do we find it in Zul'Aman? No, it's up for sale by the only known Naaru retailer, G'eras. Does its method of acquisition have anything to do with Zul'Aman whatsoever? Well... it might if your guild has finished raiding Karazhan and gathers the heroic badges in Zul'Aman soon, then yes; but if you still focus mostly on Karazhan or heroic instances, then you might very well acquire some of these armor pieces without ever visiting those Amani trolls even once.What we have here, ladies and gentlemen, is the appropriation of the Amani clothing design brand by the Shat'ari Naaru in Shattrath, copied illegally by G'eras, and put on sale with no proprietary settlement with trolls they are mimicking. Who knew that the Naaru could be capable of copyright infringement? If the trolls were down with that whole "I'll see you in court!" thing, their lawyers would be all over this right now.Seriously, why is a being of pure holy light selling trollish armor with skulls and tusks and voodoo dolls on it? -- or does nobody care?
Gresso's new USB flash drives come adorned in wood and diamonds
Love USB? Love wood? Love high fashion? It's okay if you lied about one of those, we swear. Regardless of the level of your honesty with us (which we now believe to be lower than expected), you'll want to get your grubby mitts all over these fancy pieces of technology / jewelry. Gresso's cross- and apple-shaped flash drives supposedly transmute the story of Adam & Eve into African mahogany, 18-karat gold, Swarovski crystals, and white diamonds. Inside the dolled-up necklaces, you'll find a 1GB USB drive, which will be perfect for holding all the pictures of yourself that you carry around, or video clips of you and your friends on the catwalk. The drives will be available sometime this month, and prices range from a bourgeois $100, all the way up to an aristocratic $1000.[Via Coolest Gadgets]
April Fool's 8-bit tie now available
Back in the April of '07, we spent one long weekend dealing with the multitude of April Fool's tips we received -- one of those tips is now real. Although ThinkGeek created the WiiHelm as their big joke, it was their subtle 8-bit tie that got people upset who tried to purchase the item and ThinkGeek said they'd actually start making it. Now the 8-bit tie is available in all its glory for purchase.The ThinkGeek site says the item is made of a "very silk-like microfiber." Due to the item being handmade there will be slight variations on the edges, but for a $20 tie we're really not going to complain. So go out and rock the 8-bit tie.[Thanks Pedro]
Samsung and Giorgio Armani team up on mobile phones, LCD TVs
In an exciting peanut-butter-in-my-chocolate development, Samsung has announced its plans to manufacture new products jointly designed with famed fashion magnate Giorgio Armani (of course, we knew this was coming). According to reports, Giorgio and the company are teaming up for the development of a "luxury" mobile phone, as well as a "luxury" LCD television, both of which are rumored to be extremely "luxurious." The phone (which we first heard about in July) will make its first "official" appearance at an Armani fashion show in Milan, Italy, while the television will rear its gorgeous head sometime in January. "This powerful partnership will match great design with leading technology to ensure performance is as impressive as appearance," said Yun Jong-Yong, vice chairman of Samsung. Could this be the company's answer to LG's Prada mash-up? We think yes.
Sony offering up Swarovski crystal-clad E010 DAPs
Just in case you've been out of the loop for some time, this DAP certainly won't go down as the first to come glazed in Swarovski crystals, but Sony has nevertheless teamed up with Abiste Corporation to craft the limited edition Walkman E010 lineup. The players will be available in pink, violet, black, blue, or gold colors, have removable caps adorned with Swarovski glass crystals, and won't arrive to your domicile for two solid months after you initially place an order. 'Course, those even remotely interested in one of these beauties should know that it won't come sans a premium, and while you can snag the lowly 1GB flavor for "just" ¥15,800 ($134), the 2GB rendition will run you ¥18,800 ($160) while the 4GB unit demands ¥24,800 ($210) -- while supplies last, mind you.[Via Luxist]
Liz Claiborne accessory line headed to Best Buy
You won't find any kvetching going on at Engadget HQ when it comes to new lines of fanciful gizmo adornments, but forcing us to enter Best Buy in order to pick something up may elicit a few scrunched-up noses. Nevertheless, the infamous big box retailer is apparently hoping to snag a few more holiday dollars from ladies (and their gift-buying SOs) by asking Liz Claiborne to design a "collection of electronics accessories for women." The Liz Claiborne Accessories line will reportedly include "laptop bags, protective sleeves, business totes, and cases for cellphones, music players, and cameras." Price wise, you'll be looking at around $25 to $200 depending on what you pick up, and you can drop in to scope things out at nearly 250 Best Buy locations beginning in October.UPDATE: Seems like some readers have seen this stuff in Best Buy locales already, so give your local one a call if you're desperate to know.
Space invading fashion hoodies
It took them over 25 years, but the Space Invaders are finally invading. The most recent example is a clothing line featuring the pesky aliens. The three designs from the right side above are reminiscent of Liz Claiborne's '80s power collection, which helped establish modern pattern design in fashion (OK, we totally made that up -- maybe). Anyway, those Space Invaders have already made it onto high-end footwear, Barcelona stores, Christian rap, wall pasties, and if we were faster we could have snapped a picture of one we saw spraypainted on a Los Angeles bridge during E3. We're very curious to see where the simple Space Invader iconography will show up next. Maybe this was their master plan all along.[Thanks John]
Louis Vuitton releases first luxury iPhone cases
This wasn't on the iPhone Bingo card, but it should have been. Where there's an extremely coveted gadget, there'll be an extremely expensive luxury case for it. Louis Vuitton has announced a set of four cases for the iPhone: Monogram Canvas, Taiga Leather, Epi Leather and Alligator Skin. The Taiga Leather one has a belt attachment on it, but all of the cases are pretty inconvenient, because you've got to pull the iPhone all the way out to actually use it.Oh, and we've saved the best for last. Want to guess prices? The Monogram Canvas case will only set you back a measly $225, while the Alligator Skin case is twice the price of the actual iPhone: $1120. All the cases will be available tomorrow at Louis Vuitton's Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan.Thanks, JW!
Unicorn vs. Godzilla and other geeky wallets
If showing off your geekiness by wearing Joystiq t-shirts and stacking Tetris shelves in every room of your house isn't enough, how about a Unicorn vs. Godzilla wallet? Artists drawing for Tinymeat.com have placed several quasi-game-related wallet designs on the handmade item market Etsy. Other gems include a pirate playing ping pong against an alien, a Katamari-like land of happy monsters, and a sea monster battling a ship. Most of the images look as if they were taken right from an episode of Samurai Jack and will elicit shocked looks from 90 year old store clerks wherever you go. And for 14 measly dollars, it's worth it.
New York Times looks at the fabulous life of video game dress-up
From creating wrestlers to designing cars, soon developers will be able to ship games entirely without content and leave it to us to create the actual fun. But will we mind? Probably not. We'll be too busy worrying about whether or not our +4 leather belts make our virtual butts look big.New York Times takes a look at the growing amount of games featuring customizable avatars, real world accessories and the men who love them. The ever eccentric Kudo Tsunoda of EA Games stops by to lay out his vision for modern create-a-gaming, saying that the technology is there to push a button and have your virtual threads shipped right to your home.Until that day, we'll just make do with being catty, virtual fashion devotees.
Vertu's avant-garde handsets to hit Japan in 2008
Being that the economy seems to be doing quite well over in Japan these days, it follows logic that Vertu would offer up its pricey wares for the affluent on that side of the world, too. Apparently, Vertu is working with Nokia to develop a W-CDMA handset for use in Japan, but details beyond that are few and far between. Thankfully, we do know not to get our hopes up before the fall of 2008, but hopefully we'll find out exactly what phone(s) will be headed to the Land of the Rising Sun -- along with the lofty pricetags that will surely accompany them -- a few months prior to launch.[Via Slashphone]
Fashionistas fawn over new screenshots
Considering the popularity of Project Runway -- and yes, we admit to being avid fans of the show and Tim Gunn's flair -- we're surprised that more games like Fashion Designer: Style Icon haven't been announced for the DS.Scheduled for release this November, the sim takes young designers through fashion school, offering opportunities for graduates to "start a workshop, accept private design contracts, supply small boutiques, and set up mail order companies." That's a lot more depth than we would've expected from a game with such a pink-and-purple-dominated palette!We doubt there'll be any online functionality, but developer Creative Patterns promises to include multiplayer "design-offs" where you can battle your friends on the catwalk. "Carry on" and "make it work" while you check the gallery for three new Fashion Designer: Style Icon screenshots.%Gallery-4243%
DIY pixel art T-shirts
Here's a cute art project for a lazy afternoon: Do-it-yourself pixel art shirts. HackerZen has all the instructions on how to make your own pixel art clothing for those of us without silkscreen contraptions. The project does seem a little bit involved, but if you've got a kid to keep occupied for a full afternoon, here's a good option. We're keen on the Mario shirt, but anything 8-bit is easily possible.It's amazing what you can find in a modern crafts store. There must be an iron-on thing where you can fill in what you want and do the same thing ... although, acrylic paint definitely has better staying power than an iron-on. If this art project seems a little bit too involved, might we suggest the simpler and less artistically taxing game clocks.[Via DSFanboy]
Is this Nokia's geometry-happy 7900?
For a manufacturer that's arguably the most design conservative of the Big Five (or not), this here 7900 seems to be totally outside Nokia's comfort zone -- but who knows? We live in an era where Nokia's warmed up to American 3G, so we can say with confidence that crazier things have happened. Features are said to include WCDMA and quadband GSM, QVGA display, 1.3 megapixel cam, 1GB of internal storage, and an 11mm thick case that really brings out our inner mathematician. Until we see something a little more real on this one, though, we'll be filing it in the "fanboy rendering" cabinet.[Via IntoMobile]
Rock Paper Scissors goes mobile
Let's simmer down a bit and take it old school. Like Atari old school? No, like cave man old school. "Next-gen" graphics too much and getting in the way of the simpler things in life? Then let us present to you the electronic Rock, Paper, Scissors key chain.This modern marvel comes in packs of two for $8.89. By pressing a button the LCD will display one of the three magic symbols to resolve any shotgun calling or last slice of pizza debates instantly. The site says you can even "challenge your left hand against your right!"[Via Engadget]
Sony's Vaio CR series finally gets official
No real surprises at this point, but here's skinny on Sony's "worst kept secret" Santa Rosa-based Vaio CR series of 14.1-inch laptops. Sony is going the multi-color route with these, hoping to attract the fashionistas in the room with sangria, cosmopolitan, dove, indigo and black color options. Sony also packed in some fun keyboard-bordering LED action and even an option for a color-coordinated bag and mouse. Prices start at $1,350 and Sony will start shipments at the end of this month. Processors are all Core 2 Duo T7100, graphics do the Intel GMA X3100 thing, the display manages a 1280 x 800 resolution, and 2GB of RAM comes standard. Hit up the gallery for more pics.%Gallery-3848%
Nokia partners with Finnish artist for mobile jewelry line
We've all seen those kid-friendly plastic stickers that the younger set tends to slap on their handsets in order to amp their ego, but Nokia's taking the decoration idea pretty seriously. Apparently, the firm is working with Finnish artist Björn Weckström to actually offer a "customized, limited edition Nokia N76" that will only be for sale at the Helsinki Nokia Flagship store. Additionally, there will be other pieces available to jazz up your already purchased Nokia mobile, but there's no word just yet on what exactly you can expect it to look like. We'd say the best jewelry is just an entirely new handset, eh?
The DS: your portal to fashion design
Ubisoft seems to really hope that legions of non-Japanese girls will materialize, frenetically demanding to be allowed to design their very own fashion line -- just as soon as they're finished with their Horsez, that is. They've announced Fashion Designer, a game that allows players to -- you guessed it -- design their own outfits and accessories, and send models catwalking out for praise. Eventually, a Love and Berry-style frenzy really is going to take root among younger girls outside Japan, but we're not sure this is going to be it. If nothing else, however, it's nice to see that Ubisoft is really trying to keep up with Nintendo's market expansion. We may not love everything they're producing, but we admire the effort. High five! Though perhaps a little eyelash-flutter may be more appropriate here.%Gallery-4243%
