Fashion and Technology Collide on the DVF Runway

by: Emily Kirkpatrick

If you were watching the Diane Von Furstenberg Spring/Summer 2013 collection come down the runway earlier this week, you might have noticed some rather strange eyewear on models’ faces. It turns out the Spring 2013 DVF show also launched the designer’s collaboration with Google and their newly developed Google Glass, which came out earlier this year. The glasses can provide directions, answer phone calls, surf the web, take photos, essentially anything your iPhone can do but on a tiny screen directly in front of your eye. Even Diane Von Furstenberg wore one, recording the whole show to put together a mini-documentary about the runway show, which was released online today.

The documentary cuts together footage from Diane’s Google Glass along with that of the stylist, makeup artist, and models as they walk down the runway to create an endearing short film that really captures the spirit behind DVF. Perhaps the most charming moment comes when Diane tapes a gold coin that belonged to her father on the bottom of her shoe before the show because it brings her good luck. Although the glasses aren’t exactly fashion forward, it’s interesting to see the worlds of fashion and technology intersecting and working together on a creative endeavor. Although they’re not yet available to the public, Google plans to ship prototypes of the Google Glass to developers in early 2013, and they will be sold for roughly $1500 apiece. DVF has brought an element of humanity and practicality to the whole Google Glass campaign, but one question still hangs heavy: Is Google Glass the new must have piece of technology, or a one scary step closer to a Big Brother future?