The mobile phone between fashion and design

Abstract

In this article first of all I want to look at the current debate on fashion and the mobile phone. After a brief outline of the question, I discuss the role of fashion and then of design, an interconnected theme that has never been satisfactorily addressed in this debate. Then I analyse briefly how social networks and applications have introduced the discourse surrounding fashion and information about fashion to this device. My conclusion is that it is now necessary to make social science research converge with HCI research in order to have a better understanding of the potentialities of the mobile phone and a clearer vision of where research is now needed.