H-P and the Clang of Fashion

It's often a little painful to watch a personal computer maker -- or at least one that isn't Apple -- try to be fashionable. Kind of like seeing a Clay Aiken makeover.

Anyway, it's Fashion Week in New York, and Hewlett-Packard chose it as the time and place to introduce a bunch of new PCs and handhelds, many of which seem pretty cool by gadget-geek standards. But the reason for a Fashion Week event is that H-P is trying to make its PCs more than just work tools -- it wants them to be personal fashion statements.

To that end, H-P has taken the radical step of...well, of making laptop covers in something other than gray. I suppose it's a step in the right direction, but just putting a nice design on the cover doesn't do much to remake the computer's image.

Maybe H-P and other computer makers need to enlist real fashion designers to help, the way Kohl's brought in Vera Wang to create a line for its stores. (H-P uses her in a commercial -- why not get her to design a laptop?) Maybe we'd finally get computers that break the mold.

("Fashion" computers at H-P's event in New York, photo by Kevin Maney)

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