fashion

Recycled Lexus parts as couture

With about 2,000 parts to choose from, four designers created high-fashion clothing and accessories from a disassembled Lexus CT 200h.

The Lexus Fashion Workshop highlights not only the talents of fashion designers Moss Lipow, Eddie Borgo, John Patrick, and Alejandro Ingelmo, but also the Lexus CT hybrid as a 90 percent recyclable vehicle.

The fashions created from the car parts push the idea of recycling and are part of an upcoming advertising campaign for Vogue.

The collection will be on display at Art Basel Miami Beach, on Dec. 1 and 2, 2011. The pieces will also be available through … Read more

'Toy Story' aliens invade fashion runway

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

Intimacy 2.0 dress plays high-tech peek-a-boo

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

Audio-Technica serves up affordable 'jewel-cut' Bijoue headphones

They don't have the spiky, studded look of the new Lady Gaga earphones, but Audio-Technica's ATH-CKF303 in-ear and foldable ATH-FW33 on-ear Bijoue headphones do have a "jewel-cut" design and fit squarely (or is it octagonally?) in the company's FashionFidelity line.

The new models come in a variety of colors and list for $29.95 and $39.95. One suggestion for Audio-Technica: add an integrated microphone. Diamonds may be a girl's best friend but hey, she needs to make calls, too.

The real reason Steve Jobs wore turtlenecks

I had thought--and perhaps I was not alone in this--that Steve Jobs wore black turtlenecks because they were lucky.

It is not uncommon for human beings--especially men--to have lucky shirts, lucky pants, even lucky underwear.

Yet the story of Jobs' black designer turtlenecks involved not merely the turtlenecks' designer, but Jobs' enthusiasm for Apple employees to all wear uniforms.

Walter Isaacson, Jobs' chosen biographer, donated a fascinating snippet to Gawker that explained the story.

It seems that Jobs took a trip to Japan in the 1980s and was rather moved to see everyone at Sony wearing a uniform. He was … Read more

eBay launches virtual outlet mall for U.S.

Hoping to tap the expanding online fashion market, eBay this week launched Fashion Outlet, a virtual U.S. outlet mall that lets brands and designers connect directly with eBay customers. Think of that outlet mall in the boonies without the drive down some random highway.

The launch of the fashion outlet follows the debut of eBay outlet sites in the U.K. and Germany. The fashion items sold through the "Buy It Now" feature are priced at 20 percent to 65 percent off retail price, making them comparable price-wise to items found at outlets, Miriam Lahage, eBay's … Read more

British rapper nabs Marty McFlys--for $37,500

How much is a pair of real-life Marty McFlys from "Back to the Future II" worth? To Tinie Tempah, the answer is $37,500. That's how much the British rapper paid for the Nike sneaks during a live auction Wednesday night in Los Angeles, TMZ reports.

"It was a total spur-of-the-moment decision," the rapper told the publication. "I was really touched in the moment by the presentation and next thing I knew I owned these iconic sneakers."

Anyone with deep pockets can still bid on one of 1,500 pairs of Nike's new Air Mag 2015 sneakers up for auction on eBay's Fashion Vault. Proceeds from the 10-day auction will go to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's research.

The man behind the famed Marty McFly character, actor Michael J. Fox, went on the "Late Show with David Letterman" last night to show off the rechargeable kicks (see the vid below). They look like the originals, but sadly don't sport power laces.

Most of the shoes being auctioned haven't come close to the $37,500 price tag yet and are instead going for $4,000 to $11,000. … Read more

T-shirts come alive with augmented reality

Need to spruce up your wardrobe? When that "Bazinga!" T-shirt just will not cut it anymore, maybe some interactive augmented-reality attire could be for you.

Augmented-reality app specialist Zappar and private-label clothier Hybrid Apparel today announced a line of 20 T-shirts with Threadless-esque designs that come to life through AR. In the video below, we see an example of augmented-reality fashion via a T-shirt named "Mars Attacks." Using the free Zappar app (available for iOS and Android devices), a person using the iPad's touch screen and rear camera defeats a large robot projected on the T-shirt by zapping it with lasers. Not bad. … Read more

iPad finally has competition: Pierre Cardin

Admire the lines. Sigh at the sheer, breathtaking Frenchness that oozes from every pore. Marvel that, now, finally, holding an iPad will be nothing more than wearing H&M.

For famed designer of beautiful, expensive, and possibly quite useless things, Pierre Cardin, is releasing an iPad rival.

Of course, I'm serious. It's Monday.

The Pierre Cardin PC-7006 Tablet PC (which really could do with a better name) represents the true triumph of form over function. It boasts a tagline that expresses everything one could hope for: "Stay Connected In Style With The UK's First Designer … Read more

GQ: Zuckerberg even worse dressed than Jobs

I know that, for so many men in the world, GQ represents the high altar of fashion.

So there will possibly be hordes of engineers, coders, and their lovers streaming toward Gucci today, having heard that GQ has declared Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg as tech's worst-dressed male.

In its presentation of the 15 worst-dressed men of Silicon Valley, GQ reached for a soaring smoking jacket of wit and found, some might say, merely a cummerbund of carping.

It described Zuckerberg's sartorial splendor in this way: "Oblivious to the fact that jeans and ties come in skinny sizes--or … Read more