CES shows its own fashion trends

Kirk Baird

Monday, Jan. 14, 2002 | 8:16 a.m.

The model's swinging hips weren't designed to draw attention to the miniskirt clinging to her bare thighs.

Although some men ogled the skin on the runway at the Consumer Electronics Show, just as many conference-goers were checking out the slim and sexy cell phone clipped to her waist.

And that's just what the first CES fashion show extravaganza inside the Las Vegas Convention Center was hoping to do.

The thumping bass and quick-cut video may have been state of the art, but it was a simple pair of Levi's Dockers that stole the show for one Boston visitor.

"Did you see how quickly he grabbed that phone?" said Peter McGraw, a graduate student attending his first CES. "I need some pants like that."

If form follows function, the clothes and accessories at CES are all about easing the use of portable electronics devices such as cell phones, personal display assistants, CD and DVD players.

The Mobile Pants from Levi's have special pockets within the pant pockets to hold phones or PDAs. On the runway, phones were clipped to jeans, slipped into see-through pouches and strapped like concealed weapons in shoulder holsters. The youthful models showed off their gadgets while a graying-hair model concealed his.

The most memorable gadget in the 10-minute show -- one of nine throughout the day -- was a simple faceplate transforming a cell phone into a piece of formal attire.

A blonde wearing a sheer black mini bedecked in faux diamonds strutted down the runway lip-synching "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend." When she got to a fake sewer grate on the stage, the air blew up the skirt a la Marilyn Monroe to reveal a diamond-covered cell phone clipped to her garter.

Swiss Army brands' Victorinox Apparel featured pockets to hold CD players and headphones. Jabra showcased a lanyard for cell phones and an ear winder that allows the wearer to manage the wire extending from the phone to the ear.

"We've always been very conscious about how our product looks," said Jennifer Cauble, vice president of marketing for San Diego-based Jabra. "Initially it was businessmen who wanted something unobtrusive. Now it's mainstream."

Cauble said teens like to show off their gadgets while many others purchase Jabra products for convenience of use.

At CES, thousands of attendees talk into wearable phones as they maneuver the crowds. In coming years they will be wearing computers that also function as cell phones, MP3 players and PDAs.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is seeking proposals to develop wearable technology that, when applied to parachutes, can generate solar power or track satellite signals.

But since there was no camouflage on the runway, that too, seems a bit down the road.