(Un)Fashionable: What Makes Tech Wearable?

In 2007, Apple Computer Inc. became Apple Inc. With the launch of the iPhone, the company cemented its position as an unparalleled innovator in consumer electronics, an unstoppable force pushing beyond its home computing remit to disrupt first the MP3 and then the mobile phone industry.¹ It also reinforced something much less tangible than computer specifications - that tech could be stylish.

Cutting through confusion and clunkiness, since the turn of the millennium Apple’s sleek products have reflected its philosophy of putting design at the forefront. By giving equal weight to the look and feel of products alongside their functionality, sometimes even tipping the balance towards style, the company has changed not just the actions of our daily lives, but also the aesthetics.

So Apple’s foray into the world of Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR and VR) headsets - the first radical new addition to its product offer in several years - should have presented us with a bold new wearable that we can’t wait to get onto our heads.

It’s got all the hallmarks of a hit Apple product: rounded curves, brushed metal, an expanse of glass, a soft greyscale colour scheme. It even has a futuristic new category name, spatial computing, and incredibly advanced video passthrough technology that puts it a step above competition from Meta and PlayStation. 

But since its release in February to much fanfare, the US demand for the Vision Pro is already tapering off, even as Apple prepares to launch in Europe and Asia. Some have blamed the high price, whilst others report the isolating effects of using the headset. For critic Brenda Stolyar, it feels like “an awkward elephant in the room”, phrasing that should have alarm bells ringing all over Apple HQ.³

If even tech enthusiasts are having to steel themselves to wear the headset in public, for fear of rolling eyes or worse, mocking videos being posted of them on social media, then the brand’s carefully engineered image might have already taken a hit.⁴

Nearly fifty years ago, Apple proclaimed that “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”. Diverging from the industrial look of other tech brands, Steve Jobs embraced Zen Buddhist and Bauhaus influences. When Jobs joined forces with designer Jony Ive in 1997, the pair pioneered a design language of purity and honesty that delivered successive consumer triumphs. First the iMac, then the iPod, iPhone, and iPad.⁵

Just like Jobs’ iconic Issey Miyake turtlenecks, these deceptively minimal products were not only powerful processors, they were also expertly designed, exuding cool in an unobtrusive way. There’s a slight paradox: on the one hand, they’re meant to fade seamlessly into the background, but on the other hand, they signal status, wealth, and taste, a combination that’s catnip to the creative industries.

In the mid 2010s, Apple was getting this brand balancing act just right. Anna Wintour might have taken longer than some to adopt the iPhone (finally replacing her Blackberry in 2012), but in the meantime Apple’s relationship with fashion was steadily solidifying.⁶

Nothing epitomises this more than the launch of Apple’s first wearable - the Watch - in 2014. Instead of a typical tech event, it was first seen in the Parisian high-end boutique Colette. Karl Lagerfeld was even in attendance.⁷ Then, in 2015, the brand formalised its association with capital-F Fashion even further by partnering with the French heritage brand Hermès, releasing luxurious leather Watch-compatible straps. A later collaboration with Nike added another dimension to Watch customisation, giving wearers sport-appropriate accessories to match the device’s activity tracking capabilities.

This approach acknowledges something key: that as technology advances to be more portable and closer to the body, it also assimilates further into a user’s wardrobe. More so than ever before, the function of a computing device is not just the digital tasks it can perform, but also the projection of the wearer’s personality and lifestyle. It’s an approach that has paid off, with the Watch growing to dominate the smartwatch market, selling nearling 54 million units in 2022.⁸

Moving wearables from the wrist to the face was always going to be a challenge, especially when the technology is in its early stages. It’s surprising, however, that Apple didn’t learn from one of the biggest fashion-tech flops of the 2010s: Google Glass.

The problems with Google Glass have been well documented, from disappointing battery life to the privacy concerns of constant filming. However, something less acknowledged (at a time when hype around wearables is once again reaching a fever pitch) is the swift reputation Glass gained for being “nerdwear”. Even collaborating with veteran designer Diane Von Furstenburg to give them a more traditional eyewear look couldn’t shake the geeky connotations.⁹

By wearing the glasses, a user immediately identified themselves as a tech enthusiast, someone more interested in being an early adopter of digital innovation than of fashion trends. And because the Glass is worn on the face, this was an in-group signal that was impossible to ignore.

Fast forward a decade and Apple seems to have forgotten that lesson. Spatial computing might be a new technological frontier, but in its current form it’s also a wearable that fits over a person’s head to cover their face. It’s always going to capture attention. While that may not matter in industry - Apple CEO Tim Cook recently highlighted the adoption in enterprise - or for home entertainment, like watching films or playing games, it does matter for use in public.¹⁰

This is not just a piece of technology, it’s also an entirely new piece of clothing. At the moment, VR headsets are associated with the very specific context of virtual experiences, such as gaming, and not with general daily activities. Unlike the iPhone, which had precedence in the mobile phones that came before it, seeing the Vision Pro in use is a new experience both for the user and for the people around them; added to this is the uncanny effect of blocking eye contact and the suspicion of constant surveillance.

While the Vision Pro is undeniably technically impressive, it goes against the design tenets Apple has so carefully established because aesthetically it is neither pure nor simple, nor does it fit seamlessly into a user’s lifestyle. Instead, wearing it is provocative: it’s a statement of belief in Apple’s vision for the future, where personal technology is no longer adjacent to us but (given that users literally see through the Vision Pro lens) is an addition to the body in a way that is explicit and unavoidable. To be a successful wearable, Apple are banking on people being willing to make that statement.

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¹ https://www.forbes.com/sites/callyrussell/2019/07/26/is-apples-fashion-crown-slipping/

² https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-13/apple-set-to-sell-vision-pro-headset-internationally-for-first-time

³ https://www.wired.com/story/the-only-thing-worse-than-one-vision-pro-in-a-relationship-is-two/, https://www.wired.com/story/apple-vision-pro-hands-on-demo/

⁴ https://www.wired.com/review/apple-vision-pro/, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9M3aG728WA&ab_channel=AIAlly

⁵ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/how-steve-jobs-love-of-simplicity-fueled-a-design-revolution-23868877/

⁶ https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/history-phones-anna-wintour_n_3980909

⁷ https://www.theverge.com/2014/9/30/6873913/apple-watch-debuts-paris-fashion-week-colette

⁸ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1421546/apple-watch-sales-worldwide/#:~:text=First%20introduced%20in%202015%2C%20the,unit%20sales%20recorded%20in%202021.

⁹ https://www.dezeen.com/2014/06/03/google-glass-diane-von-furstenberg-wearable-headsets/, https://archive.nytimes.com/runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/dvf-gives-google-glasses-a-spin-on-the-runway/

¹⁰  https://www.forbes.com/sites/timbajarin/2024/05/07/the-death-of-the-vision-pro-is-highly-exaggerated/