One of the main video clips that was used in the Google Glass teaser trailers was one where a model was walking down a catwalk and since then there have been numerous photos snapped at catwalks where the models are wearing the Glass.
What’s going on here is that Google are trying to attach the Glass to high fashion, probably due to its high early adopter price tag, so that the wealthy would give it a go, and perhaps more importantly to try to present Glass as some sort of a high fashion item.
Is it trendy? The fact of the matter is that in London, there just aren’t that many Glass Explorers and since I’ve been testing them, I haven’t seen a single other person with them. It would seem that the hype hasn’t affected the Brits as much as it did when it was first released in the US.
This, largely due to the reports and blogs about the limitations of Glass. The myths around what it could really do have already been disclosed and hence the UK launch just hasn’t been a sell out as perhaps Google hoped.
Maybe the only people testing are software companies and developers who are looking at making applications called Glassware. Even so, just like me, they have probably been sorely disappointed.
Back to fashion, I think that the Glass is a terribly untrendy thing, besides the curiosity factor which draws people to ask questions, it doesn’t look good at all, and I think Google knows this. Why else would they launch it and produce spectacles and sunglasses attachments to it?
Honestly I can’t ever see Google Glass become a thing that people want to wear just for fashion. As with anything that interferes with our lives, and Glass certainly does that, it has to provide a clear and present value for any consumer to want it, and fashion alone is not enough.
People wonder what if they redesigned it so that it was invisible, so that the technology could hardly be seen. Well if they did that, then it would just be another pair of glasses, and let’s face it, if you ask someone who is short sighted, they would rather choose not to wear glasses if they could. So you could say that glasses fashion is a necessary evil for most people.
When I think back to the video of the model and catwalk, I still can’t figure out if someone is just having a laugh with Glass. It’s like they’ve been given a no limits credit card and ordered to go out and market the unnecessary to the people who spend money on the unnecessary.
Google Glass is not fashionable, but don’t take my word for it, I’m not a fashion designer.
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