We’ve been keeping you up to date with the all the new technologies emerging left and right- along with the fashionable accessories designed to complement them!

The newest must-have gadget, the iPad, now has sleek, trendy and stylish accessories from major designers. If you don’t want to scratch your diamond studded iPad, Louis Vuitton has a case coming in 2011, Gucci’s taking pre-orders for their version now, and Hermes is putting together “special order” versions with matching headphone holders. {Fresh Mess} Oscar de la Renta, however, beat them all to the punch when he sold iPad covers on his website. Much to many of the viewers’ surprise, the cases, originally called iPad clutches, actually made an appearance on his recent resort runway fashion show. {Purse Blog}

Continuing to tap the fashion-technology market, a new collection of iPad cases in various colors and embossed patterns are now available at OscardelaRenta.com. For a sign of their popularity, the cases – pardon us, clutches, have their own link at the top of the site, right next to Ready to Wear, Accessories and Fragrances.

For us, the flap and nameplate cheapen the design and make it a bit too generic. The snakeskin is at a reasonable price though ($390 compared to $360 for Louis Vuitton’s single purpose canvas version), and we do like that the people over at Oscar de la Renta are thinking multi-purpose. How often is it that your laptop bag doubles as a large purse, or briefcase? While the iPad is designed to reduce some of the bulk of a laptop, space for a few extras is a welcome difference between the de la Renta clutch and other designer covers.

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3. Gourmet Magazine Revived for iPad Users – Just Don’t Call it a Digital Magazine

To make it easier for addicted tweeters to keep their followers up to date with every step, Rambler shoes are designed to do the work for you. {The Gloss}

The sneaker is built with sensor technology designed to sync with your bluetooth to log each step you take and subsequently post those steps as “taps” on your twitter page for all of your followers to see. {Glamour} The shoes may be technologically advanced, but are we alone in thinking that despite any technology advantage, the shoes are just plain ugly?

We understand that people like to tweet, but every step? We’re not sure if this is the grand invention people had in mind when they rhapsodize about the possibilities of fashion and technology. Twitter is a fun way to share with others, but do people really need to know when and how long you’re walking or at rest? Some messages are better left at 0 characters.

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It’s not exactly the sexiest piece of technology, we’ll admit, but consider this: How often have you taken your work outside, only to be thwarted by evil glare? Or have temporarily lost your vision trying to read a 60 page PDF at two in the morning? The Pixel Qi’s 3Qi Display is going to change all that. It’s going to transform the way you use your laptop.

Why is it so special, you ask? The Pixel Qi switches between your everyday color LCD screen, a low power black-and-white display (kinda like the Kindle’s E-Ink screen), and a transflective mode that makes your LCD screen visible in sunlight. And yes – this is a first generation product – but the very idea of its future incarnations has us and every other techie dancing for joy. Or, more accurately, blogging for joy. No one needs to see techies dance. Trust us.

Need even better news? You won’t even have to buy a new netbook to get in on the action. Pixel Qi is releasing DIY Kits later this year that will let you swap out your laptop screen with a 3Qi Display. And, according to Pixel Qi’s Mary Jensen, “It’s only slightly more difficult than changing a lightbulb.” The future is bright my friends – and yet still readable!

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3. The Greenest Lap Tops of 2010: In the Green

Wi-fi.

As the airlines struggle to keep afloat, a few have decided to forge ahead and trick-out their jumbo jets with the latest technology in the hopes of luring back loyal customers. So far, Lufthansa has announced that their flights will have internet connectivity by mid-2010, and Virgin America is right on their heels, saying that their fleet should have in-flight wi-fi by 2011.

But the king of in-flight technology? Emirates, an airline that already allows you to check your email and SMS through a dial-up connection, is not only looking to provide wi-fi to their flyers, but also to pioneer the use of cell phones in flight.

Yup, it seems that by 2011, there’s going to be nowhere you can go to escape technology. Great for you obsessive email checkers out there – not so great when you have to listen to your seat-mate’s entire phone conversation 18,000 feet over the Atlantic…

Read More {Jaunted}

Read More {FlightGlobal}

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Developers are hoping to crack into the fashion industry with the concept of “3D web,” which could potentially enable designers — whose work is completely manual — to fully simulate pieces via sophisticated modeling software in order to remove countless hours of reworking patterns.

They have their work cut out for them, as simulation is currently a rather time-consuming process — making it impractical for fashion, at least for now.  But we’re excited about the prospect and, along with the influx of new designers, this technological leap could be just what is needed to jump-start the fashion industry.

Read the full story {EE Times}

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The future of fashion is now.

Amid the frilly haystack rumpus at Chanel, the sexed-up Grace Jones warrior at Pugh and Balmain, and the return of laid-back sportswear basics at Stella emerged one more new runway trend: the fashion industry’s full-blown plunge into the world of technology.

Now that we’re [finally] entering the recovery phase after this financially catastrophic past year, perhaps it’s the frenzy to make up for lost time that has turned the concept of social networking into such a lucrative opportunity for designers.  The international reach of platforms like Twitter and Facebook, when paired with the instantaneous nature of blogging, creates a monster of a marketing opportunity for companies when they so desperately need results, and quickly.

As concluded in last month’s “Future of Women’s Fashion” panel in NYC, the fashion industry’s only way forward is to make fashion accessible to more than just a privileged select few.  We hope this booming foray into the internet will provide the push toward democratized, humanistic fashion that we so crave.

Read the full story {NY Times}

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Norma Kamali and Elie Tahari, on the other hand, are among the sparse selection of brands who have allowed their iPhone apps to mature into full hand-held shopping experiences.

Many luxury brands like Chanel have balked at the continuing trend of making everything internet-accessible (luxury is, after all, about exclusivity), but retailers in this day and age are better off swallowing their pride and keeping up with the Joneses and all their sparkly new tech toys.

Perhaps fashion really is on its way to becoming more democratic after all.

Read the full story {The Wall Street Journal}

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Her project, (In)visible Membrane, explores the idea that the healthy, natural human body is host to thousands of bacteria — a fact which we, especially in our hysteria over swine flu, would like very much to forget.  Like it or not, our skin is a vast ecosystem for bacteria, which Bäumel visualizes (quite beautifully) as covering us like a delicate net of lace-like spray.

We love the symbolism behind Bäumel’s pieces (especially the opera-length openwork gloves, which we would love to wear), because we agree that it’s important to be aware of everything that is around — and on — us, in order to understand how we as humans fit into the Big Picture.

Read the full story {Dezeen}

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