So why is the Glass team so obsessed with Fashion Week? It's their attempt to solve one of the biggest problems facing the product ahead of its release; they're not cool.
Before people lash out at me over that last statement, I should clarify that I would kill for a chance to get my hands on a pair (in sky, preferably). I would assume that's certainly the opinion of most of my tech savvy peers, but outside of the campuses of technical universities, Glass is more curiosity than must have product like the iPhone was when it made smartphones a must have accessory. And Glass has a much steeper hill to climb than Apple ever did with the iPhone. A smartphone disappears into your pocket, and Glass is affixed to your face for everyone to see. Your face is your identity, and the average consumer will not take lightly the decision of playing with that identity by strapping a computer in front of their field of vision.
Unless Google can fix the qualities of Glass that make users sit out like sore thumbs in a major major way, which it is working on, it has no other choice but to make the device something users will want to be seen wearing. This is where Fashion Week comes into play, although I would argue the campaign is misguided at best.
That's because, simply put, those who are wearing Glass during Fashion Week aren't really real people. And I mean that as no slight to models at all. The issue is these are beautiful people looking beautiful while wearing outrageously designed clothes that the general public could never possibly pull off. And in the same way, that these models are looking beautiful wearing Glass says nothing about how I will look with a pair, let alone my parents.
The Vogue shoot, see the slideshow here, is if anything more detrimental to Google's goals than helpful. Instead of humanizing the device and making Glass sexy and desirable, it portrays it as cold and alienating, playing into the fears regarding technology that older generations can't stop sharing with everyone holding a smartphone within shouting distance. As Aaron Souppouris of The Verge opines:
Rather than toeing the company line and portraying Glass as a friendly device that will improve your life, Vogue places Glass on emotionless models, set against the brutal architecture of Robert Bruno's Steel House. In one unnerving image, a Glass-less model lays unconscious on the floor while a pair of cyborg-like models watch on through their headsets. Not exactly in line with Google's desire for Glass to blend invisibly into our present-day lives.Google has a lot of work ahead of them with Glass, and their strategy to deal with that right now doesn't seem to be working. With 2014 just around the corner, and with it the likely release of a consumer model of Glass approaching, Google better think up something else quick. I say this as a guy who can't wait to purchase a pair, with a girlfriend who has pledged to never be seen with me again if I do.
I think that Google should focus more on showing it off interesting ways to use it that aren't more shallow consumer uses (it doesn't even have Instagram so what's the point of the mainstream consumer using it?). I don't think enough people in the tech community (including myself), are really convinced of its utility. I find that for most of its features, my phone is a simpler and easier device to use. Glass still feels like a sci-fi dream-come-true, that hasn't yet reached its fullest potential. Showing it off with models won't do much.
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