Fashion

So you think the likes of Spider-Man and Pirates of the Caribbean have saturated the market with merchandising? Wait till the Transformers juggernaut gets into full gear as the movie's July 4 opening nears.

We've already seen an "Optimus Prime" helmet, GM cars and, just yesterday, some Transformer Nikes. Now, Tokyomango says Takara Tomy is assaulting our auditory canals with the "Transformers Music Label Frenzy and Rumble" earphones. With a name like that, can there be any doubt that they're from Japan?

Nike seems to have joined GM on the Transformers bandwagon.

Manolo's Shoe Blog--yes, we even read shoe blogs here at Crave--noticed these Transformers that convert from a sneaker into a toy robot. The fake sneakers, which come as the characters Convoy or Megatron, are half-size replicas of actual Nike sneakers and even come in a shoebox. (Have fun explaining these to airport security.)

The sneakers, available this May for about $30 from Takara Tomy, are no doubt part of the marketing blitz for the July 4 release of the new Transformers action movie. A Japanese ad for Nike … Read more

We've got to tip our hats to Hong Kong: It's not often that a city gets its very own special edition of a phone. For whatever reason, Motorola has dedicated a version of its Krzr K1 clamshell handset to the metropolis, in "champagne gold" no less.

It's not quite the $10,000 Peter Aloisson model, but we'll go out on a limb and speculate that it'll cost less. And this one come with other perks as well, Electronista says, such as "a coupon or a free gold nail-polish pack at Sa Sa … Read more

We thought the BlackBerry seemed a more natural product endorsement for Britney Spears, but it can't compete with the sex appeal of a video iPod--especially when it's part of a promotional campaign for a designer fragrance. So she's has autographed 10 limited editions to be given away in a contest to promote her "Midnight Fantasy" line by Elizabeth Arden, according to GeekSugar.

We're tempted to start a contest of our own, perhaps to speculate about what product will win Ms. Spears' endorsement next. First guess: The "HairMax LaserComb."

As we admired Seiko's e-ink watch last week, we'd almost forgotten about the LED timepiece trend that we've come to despise. Then, only a few days later, we were treated to the unfortunate image of the "Pixel Watch," which also takes a bangle-bracelet form while resembling one of the most confounding LED designs we've ever seen.

This unsightly wrist-beast boasts electro-luminescent technology to display the time, according to Red Ferret, though it frankly doesn't matter to us because we couldn't decipher it anyway. But we should be fair about its design: In … Read more

Crave is always thankful to see an innovative watch design that doesn't involve LEDs or have the word "pimp" in its name. And we're particularly fond of retro designs that shun unnecessary technology.

But even though we're intrigued by the "Cabestan" from Vianney Halter and Jean-Francois Ruchonnet, it unfortunately falls into the ever-growing category of watches we don't understand. Gearfuse's brief description alone is enough to boggle our tiny minds: "The displays are controlled through chain links and fusee wound by a winch." (Isn't that sailing lingo?) And … Read more

Et tu, iPod? Say it ain't so.

We've come to accept the electronics industry's penchant for taking perfectly decent products and making them disgustingly garish, especially where gold is involved. But the idealist in us naively thought the iPod would be immune to this unfortunate trend.

Yet there it is on Luxurylaunches, in all its 24k glory--and not just any gold, but "unique hardened mirror gold," whatever that means, from $600 to $800.

And who's responsible for this egregious blingdom? Why, Amosu, of course.

Seeing yesterday's $10,000 phone reminded us (unfortunately) of the leopard-spotted diamond Krzr from the same designer, as well as a perfectly matching mouse from Saks. It then occurred to us: These fancy designers aren't the only ones who can come up with audaciously ugly phones and mice.

Textually.org, for example, notes that Amosu.com will "customize your cell phone with diamonds, gold or white gold or make one unique piece according to your specification." And for your bejeweled mouse, Gadget Candy suggests U.K.-based The Crystal Chick, which will create "Brit-born babies&… Read more

If phones have become a staple of fashion accessories, then it stands to reason that they should have proper representation--as in a modeling agency.

Elite Model Look has taken care of that, signing French phone designer ModeLabs to create its "Elite EML 1" handset. Pricing and availability for non-models remain a mystery for now, but the marketing literature is classic: "It's glamorous, naturally into multimedia, and wears the trendiest colours. It gets with the rhythm of the music and grabs every moment in photo or video. My new Elite EML2--it's a whole 'Attitude'!"

As … Read more