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Although Glass isn’t yet available
to the public, Google has been making a concerted effort to convince
people it’s cool — or, at the very
least, socially acceptable — to wear
the funny-looking device. The company has made a point of planting
Glass with people outside the tech
crowd. Designer Diane von Furstenberg and a cadre of runway models
were among the fi rst public figures
to give Glass a go, and Google’s
Glass Explorer program invited
“bold, creative individuals” to apply to be among the first allowed to
buy a beta version of Glass.
The Vogue spread marks the
highest-profile instance yet of Glass
being showcased as an aesthetic
object. Google has told us Glass is
functional. Vogue now shows us
how it can be fashionable.
“Having Glass in the Vogue issue
is fantastic as it really shows the
beauty and simplicity of the device’s design,” Dale said. “Everyone
on the Glass team is over the moon
with the issue.”
But featuring Glass in Vogue
does more than make it look lovely.
It makes it look even more elite,
high-end and upper class than
the device (with its $1,500 pricetag) already is. Its placement in a
high-fashion magazine alongside
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a $1,545 mohair sweater, $2,300
turtleneck and $4,490 teal coat is
a step toward positioning the wearable device as a status symbol.
Apple pioneered the idea of gadget as fashion accessory, transforming smartphones and MP3
players from something you had
Its placement in a highfashion magazine alongside
a $1,545 mohair sweater,
$2,300 turtleneck and $4,490
teal coat is a step toward
positioning the wearable
device as a status symbol.”
to use into something you had to
have. Though Glass might still look
strange to some, Google may be
embracing that same model.
Some who leaf through the
Vogue spread might come away
thinking that Glass is the new black
— the perfect companion to that
Celine bag or Michael Kors gloves.
But to others, it risks seeming even
more science fiction or theoretical.
As my HuffPostTech colleague
Alexis Kleinman mused as she
flipped through the pages, “It just
looks even more out of
reach than it already is.”