Mobile phones have long been a fashion item, but if the catwalk at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes is anything to go by, you'll soon be able to wear the phones - with little else besides. Or be able to customise your clothing by simply sending a text message.
Micro-skirted models wearing communicating necklaces or funky watch phones, such as those from Seiko, drew a big audience at 3GSM, the annual get-together of the mobile industry. Among the fashionable items on the catwalk was a jacket that can change according to your mood. Feeling psychedelic? Just send a text to transmit a psychedelic image to the display panel on the jacket.
There was also a sleeveless designer flak jacket that monitors the wearers' health, with a little help from VivoMetrics and IBM.
Moving on to headgear, there were some attractive new Bluetooth hands-free headsets. And from i.Tech, a Hutchison company, an earpiece with a Bluetooth clip that can fix on to a lapel and is available in a range of metallic pale blue, lilac, orange, and this season's acid green. For scooter owners, there was a stylish black Motorola helmet with built-in communications, so you don't have to take your attention off the road to talk and ride.
There were several smart eyewear options which looked like normal sunglasses. One from MicroOptical had a small prism in the middle, which allows you to see text projected in front of you.
Another bikini-clad model wore headgear - called a Personal Display System - made by Microvision, with a tiny visor in front of one eye to display an A4 image.
A similar trick could be performed with a device the size of a cigarette lighter, which projected an image of a virtual keyboard on to a flat surface. The model demonstrated it by projecting an image on to her smooth, cellulite-free leg. Designed by VKV and manufactured by i.Tech, this is not on sale yet as the company is looking for a distributor, but Clare Barette, sales and marketing assistant at Hutchison Europe, says it will probably sell for around £99. It can be used with most personal organisers or smartphones for people who want to feel they are typing on a near PC-sized keyboard.
Some existing mobile accessories have mutated. The Orange Wearaphone, a strap that goes across the body like a sash, containing a mobile phone connected to the Orange network, now comes as a sleek black backpack, too. The original sash version - already available - can be operated while on a mountain bike or skiing, by pulling a cord, so the wearer does not have to stop what they are doing and get their phone out of a pocket. The backpack Wearaphone works in a similar way, except that the phone is built in to one of the front straps of the backpack.
For those who are still wearing last season's combat gear, Audisoft offered a Frontline Communicator, which you wear on a belt like a heavy binocular case and has a hands-free camera and microphone that works over mobile.
More discreet, perhaps, was "tingle" jewellery, which alerts you when someone is trying to get in touch by transmitting a tingling sensation to a ring, necklace or other jewellery.
The fashion show, organised by Ken Blakeslee of WebMobility Ventures, which advises venture capitalists making wireless investments, also featured youth-conscious brands, such as Diesel and Nike. Diesel has produced a denim pocket that you can attach to clothing to hide an MP3 music player. It sports denim-covered push buttons. It can even be machine washed.
Nike showed a jog-proof music player for those who want to stay plugged in while working up a sweat. Other models sported backpacks that can act as a mobile gateway or network connecting all the different technologies that pundits hope we will be wearing in future. Gateway products, services and software architecture used in the display included products from Sanyo, Seiko, Samsung and IXI.
Blakeslee said: "Technologies like Bluetooth short-range radio mean all sorts of devices - from watches to professional cameras to pens - can be equipped to communicate with a mobile."
He believes most people will carry a single mobile phone but include accessories, depending on whether they are going to work, to play sport or going out on the town.
