Fashion

Admit it: Sometimes when you're working at a cafe, hacking out CSS or putting the finishing touches on your Facebook app, you fire up your Webcam to check yourself out and make sure you're at your best for all those babe-alicious telecommuters at adjacent tables.

Well, now you can replicate that surreptitious Webcam-vanity moment without ever firing up your laptop. Yes--hallelujah--it's the MirrorBook Air, with a form factor that would leave even a jaded tech journalist agape.

The $26 MirrorBook is about the size of your typical compact. But is it really just for plucking the renegade nose hair or checking your teeth for bits of grilled cheese sandwich from The Melt just prior to entering that pitch meeting with someone from CrunchFund? We think not.… Read more

Headlamps are undeniably useful, but they are typically dull-looking entities with an emphasis on function rather than fashion. That's changing with Princeton Tec's Spectrum program for customizable headlamps.

Princeton Tec gave me the opportunity to customize a $35 Fuel light. I could have gone with something tasteful, like black and gray. Instead, I went '80s retro with a mix of pink, green, yellow, orange, and blue. It's the Cyndi Lauper of headlamps.

The Fuel has four LEDs that spit out 43 lumens. There are three brightness settings and a flashing setting. It runs on three AAA batteries and goes for up to 146 hours.

The headlamps are hand-assembled in the U.S. to your color specifications. The online design process gives you a very accurate idea of what the final product will look like.

There are 10 colors to choose from, ranging from screaming orange to subdued gray. You can select different colors for each individual part, including the body, battery door, end cap, and bracket.… Read more

Online image editors and smartphone apps like Aviary and Instagram give everyone the tools to manipulate images on their phone, but a small group of contemporary artists are already exhibiting these works at the URL phonearts.net...probably because pharts.com is already taken.

The site is a gallery of works curated by an international coalition of artists who only use cell phones and illustration apps. It started when Daniel Littlewood and Hugon Guillaume found friendship on Flickr based on their shared interest in interactive design, and decided to recruit others to exhibit similar creations online.

All the images you see on the site are the size of the average phone display, roughly 3 or 4 inches, and one thing they all share is their temporal nature.

The subjects jump from rotating GIFs to application screenshots and other images I don't even know how to describe, but they all communicate themes of spontaneity, cyber-nostalgia, and universal access.

View them with a sly eye, and enjoy the infinite scrolling!

More photos after the jump.… Read more

The holidays are fast approaching, and if you're searching for something shiny to give to your tech-loving lady, the USB locket necklace just might be the answer.

Industrial designer Emily Rothschild has given the classic keepsake a high-tech makeover by incorporating a flash drive. Now, instead of being limited to one or two photographs, you can fill up an entire 2GB flash drive with memories that your loved one can carry around her neck. … Read more

Americans are always looking for ways to drop weight without actually doing anything. That's why the Calorie Shaper line of underwear out of Japan is so enticing.

The fabric of the unmentionables features a honeycomb structure that theoretically forces your body to work harder to move. All that resistance is supposed to burn calories, but I'm more concerned about chafing.

Calorie Shapers--which, from what we can see online, sell for between $30 and $38 per pair--are available in training and daily-life versions. The daily-life option is designed to hide under your usual clothing so no one will suspect you're actually exercising as you stroll down the office hallway with a doughnut in your hand.… Read more

Buzz Lightyear is flying into high fashion, and he's taking Woody, the Aliens, and the rest of the Pixar-inspired crew with him, thanks to a new "Toy Story" fashion line from Bossini of Hong Kong.

A set of photos on Bossini's Facebook page show off the new line, which includes dresses, men's shirts, kids' costumes, and accessories.

Obviously, clothes that tap into the "Toy Story" motif are nothing new, as Disney and Pixar merchandise their movies faster than Kim Kardashian seeks out divorce lawyers. But from what I can make of Bossini's captions, it's laying out prices as high as $1,000 per three-eyed-alien tunic. … Read more

OK, I'm ready for the backlash. I'm wearing an iPod Nano on my wrist as a watch. I already own an iPhone. And an iPad. What's wrong with me?

Would you believe me if I said that I'd have done the same thing if there was any watch that could do what this one does? Would you believe me if I said I didn't do this for the iPod?

Let me explain.

I've always been a fan of digital watches and funky watch design, especially tech watches (I even defended them on TV). I'm a watch geek. I wore a retro Casio watch. I just got a cool Diesel one. A long time ago, I tried the Fossil Palm-powered watch, the Fossil Wrist PDA. I still have it in my desk drawer. Microsoft Spot watch? Check.

The iPod Nano-as-watch is a proud successor of that line, a gadget that I believe will stand the test of time for its novelty. Apple may not make a true iWatch, and the iPod's long-term destiny may not inevitably be on my wrist, but for now it's the most innovative use of iPod technology since, well, the first iPod. … Read more

Fashion and technology have gotten together to catch and filter rain with a coat and create a literal cocktail dress. Now it's time for some transparency with a dress that uses e-foil technology.

Dutch design group Studio Roosegaarde and artistic research and development institute V2_ Lab have been playing around with the transparent dress concept and recently unveiled the Intimacy 2.0.

Available in white or black, this haute couture frock responds to the wearer's heart rate by clearing things up a bit. Yep, the Intimacy 2.0 turns transparent according to how you're feeling about the people around you. … Read more

I've been waiting for the moment when famed Renaissance painter Raphael and an Apple product finally meet in a triumphant clash of art and design.

Sound the trumpets and cue the "Hallelujah" chorus! That day has arrived in the form of a 2011 MacBook Air slathered with 20,000 Swarovski crystals arranged as Raphael's two cherubs against a silvery background of glittering angel tears.… Read more