A lot has been said about how the ASUS Eee PC Seashell Karim Rashid Collection – or Eee PC 1008P – is the high-tech embodiment of high fashion. As the fashion capitals of the world gear up for their respective Fashion Weeks, I got to thinking about whether there was some merit to these claims.
I turned to the London Fashion Week website for some insight into the minds of today’s hottest designers, and compared their design aspirations against those of Karim Rashid, who worked closely with ASUS’ in-house design team to conceive the Eee PC 1008P.
The parallels were immediately clear:
A signature style
Every fashion designer endeavours to capture a distinctive look in new products, one that he or she can lay claim to. Mr. Rashid clearly pursued the same goal with the Eee PC 1008P, which boasts a unique finish that ASUS describes as digi-waves. The texture is contemporary yet classic, and is thoroughly consistent with Mr. Rashid’s body of work.
Eee PC Seashell Karim Rashid Collection (Coffee Brown)
Unique, unexpected materials
Fashion designers are very particular about material selection because it has a profound, inextricable effect on the perception of a piece of clothing. It is no different for electronic devices. To create a completely different feel for the Coffee Brown Eee PC 1008P, Karim Rashid opted to wrap it from top to bottom in a translucent coat of soft-to-the-touch rubber paint – an inspired move that has elevated the netbook to a higher aesthetic level.
Quality tailoring
The hallmarks of haute couture tailoring are lasting quality and a keen attention to details. The Eee PC 1008P exhibits similar attributes, from the sturdiness of its construction to the precise fabrication of the digi-wave finish. The production of the Eee PC 1008P required advances in tooling, painting and manufacturing technologies, and the degree of polish these innovations have brought about are evident throughout.
Despite hailing from starkly different points along the design spectrum, there appear to be distinct similarities in the creative processes of purveyors of couture and the practitioners of industrial design – perhaps pointing to the universality of good design. But do these observations qualify the Eee PC Seashell Karim Rashid Collection as products of high fashion? As with everything else in the world of fashion, you get to decide.
