Fashion and Technology Collide in the iPhone Dress

— -- There were no tech reporters in the crowd at Elie Tahari’s presentation of his spring 2015 fashion collection earlier this week in New York City. Instead, they were on the West Coast covering the Apple event happening the same day.

But they would have appreciated the ode to Apple that culminated in a black, sleeveless mesh dress covered with 50 iPhones. The one-of-a-kind costume was a not-so-subtle nod to the colliding worlds of fashion and technology.

In addition to unveiling his latest designs, Tahari was celebrating the launch of Apple’s iPhone 6, a device of which he is an unabashed fan.

“I’m inspired by the iPhone. I’ve always been. The only device I really have is an iPhone,” the designer said. “So I was very excited for the launch of the iPhone 6 today.”

Call it coincidental timing or savvy marketing, but the presence of mobile technology in fashion is undeniable. Go to any fashion show these days, and you’ll see just as many smartphones as there are actual cameras.

It’s a veritable sea of fashion fans, raising their iPhones like lighters to worship the fashion rock god or goddess of the moment.

But if there’s any upshot to all of this, it’s that the previously inaccessible world of fashion is now open to all. The phones on Tahari’s iPhone dress provided a real-time, 360-degree view of the event, which fans could access online via a livestream video.