How Fashionable is Your Cell Phone?

Whenever someone whips out an iPhone on the subway, I kind of sidle over as if pulled by some kind of magnetic force, and steal furtive glances over their shoulder at their photo album, playlist, or whatever else they might be tinkering with. It’s nothing short of pure cell phone lust.

But there are in fact sleeker, more fashionable, and - horror! - even more expensive cell phones I could be lusting after. On Monday, Giorgio Armani announced a partnership with Samsung to create a “luxury” cell phone (launch date: November; price tag: $915). By the look of the pictures, the phone actually does fit nicely into the Armani aesthetic, so it’s all the more credible when Armani explains his motive with the claim that “we make as much of a personal statement with the mobile phones that we carry…as we do with the shoes and bags we wear.”

But Armani is by no means the first fashion designer to try his hand at designing cell phones. Back in January, just as Apple revealed the iPhone for the first time, Prada and LG debuted what happened to be a very similar-looking mobile, with its own touch-screen interface (price: $777). Past partnerships have included Roberto Cavalli with LG, and Dolce & Gabanna with Motorola - with prices climbing well into the thousands.