Page 12 - Sphere No.16 (Apr 2006)

3 G H O T S P O T
STATUS SYMBOL, fashion icon, multi-media personal and business com-
munication tool – the mobile phone is the ultimate lifestyle accessory. It
makes a personal statement and epitomises the sophistication of modern
life. Checking e-mail, downloading audio tracks and video clips, sending
photos of the new baby, watching the television news, monitoring a stock
price or simply calling mum to say happy birthday – the mobile is the
dominant technology in our daily lives.
But the mobile, as its name implies, never stands still and consumers want
still more – more applications, more functions and, perhaps most impor-
tantly, even more kudos. Take the limited edition of the LG U880 – Roberto
Cavalli Fashion Phone. The Italian is the latest designer to turn his attention
from the catwalk to the cell phone with great effect.
The phone features a unique hand-printed animal
pattern and each box set comes with a new Roberto
Cavalli Serpentine EDP perfume.
Only 1,089 of these phones were manufactured
globally and when 3 Hong Kong put 33 on sale
they were snapped up immediately even with a
price tag of HKD10,333 (USD1,325)! The LG U880
is only 18.2mm thick, which makes it the world’s
slimmest 3G music handset, and is equipped with
sophisticated multi-media features to suit fashion-
conscious trendsetters. With large memory capac-
ity, users can store more than 20 MP3 songs and
the model also supports a 1.3 mega-pixel camera,
video telephony, T-Flash external memory and Bluetooth.
Animals prints are Cavalli’s signature. A comment in the book Wild:
Fashion Untamed, a companion to the designer’s 2004 exhibit at the Met-
ropolitan Museum of Art in New York, put it this way: “Roberto Cavalli
has celebrated the wild beauty of the jungle like no other designer, con-
tinually revisiting and renewing our enchantment with the flamboyant
patterning of the animal kingdom.”
Mr Cavalli has always challenged convention. He was raised in modest
surroundings but with strong artistic traditions; his mother was a tailor
and his grandfather an impressionist painter. He began his career painting
T-shirts and then developed printing techniques that could be used on
knitwear and leather. His first collection in 1972 outraged fashionistas in
Florence by showing models wearing patchwork on denim, a fabric more
associated with workers and cowboys.
The launch of the Cavalli-designed phone was backed by a fashion-
themed print advertising campaign by Bravo Asia. “Showing the phone
as a fashion accessory was critical in the promotions,” said CEO Aaron
Lau. “The idea behind the advertising creative was to show a model in the
fashion shoot. Instead of the model carrying a phone, it becomes a fashion
accessory, part of the clothes to show it as independent fashion gear.”
This cutting edge combination of technology and Ital-
ian artistry certainly breaks new ground but change is
the only constant in the world of mobile telephony.
10 SPHERE
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