The latest from the catwalk: computer tablets as cameras, captured at the Elie Saab fall/winter couture show.
I adore this trend only because it makes me laugh out loud every time that I encounter it.
Although I have grown used to walking up my rue in Montmartre past groups of tourists standing in the middle of the thoroughfare holding up their cell phones the way priests hold offerings — steadily, reverently — in their attempt to snap non-blurry photos of Le Moulin de la Galette, the city skyline and sometimes me, if I happen to get in their way, I was a little jarred the first time I saw a guy on my corner holding up an iPad.
But now I see people doing this all the time. It looks more than a little cumbersome, the wide tablet in the hands, as if the photographer were taking pictures with a sheet of paper or a full-fledged laptop, but maybe I just need to open my mind. Is a kitted-out Leica any less unwieldy than an iPad? Is a man using a tablet computer to record a haute couture show any less strange than the people around him doing the same thing, but with cell phones?
And what devices will they be using to capture runway fashion in 10, 20 years? Questions for a rainy mardi . . .