What Is Cool?
Friday afternoon, I had an interesting phone conversation with Steven Levy, who is writing a book on the iPod. At one point, he asked why I thought the iPod had managed to stay cool even after it became ubiquitous. Doesn't a gadget have to be exclusive to be cool? No, I said. That's one kind of cool. There's another kind that depends on the intrinsic aesthetics of the product. An intrinsically cool product doesn't have to be expensive or hard to get to stay cool.
It's easy to think of cool electronics. Flat-screen TVs are cool. So is the Motorola Razr. Come to think of it, flatness is simply a cool feature in electronic products. Their cool factor doesn't depend on who owns them. That doesn't mean flatness will always seem cool. It could easily become normal and boring. (I remember when silent light switches seemed incredibly cool.) If we get used to the looks of something, if it starts to fade into the background, it loses its cool factor. But it's a mistake to confuse freshness with exclusivity.
Steven Levy asked me to name some non-electronic gadgets that are intrinsically cool. I'm terrible at answering questions like that off the top of my head, especially with no pictures. But here are some examples.
This is the BCBG Max Azria Signature bag, which comes in 16 colors and two or three different sizes. I have it in bright blue. It was just so cool that every time I saw it, whether in a store window or a magazine spread, I did a double take, as though I was seeing it for the first time. Turns out it doesn't just look good. It's also incredibly functional, with pockets for every purpose.
Lots of cars are cool. The classic Jaguar is the example I managed to come up with on the spot, undoubtedly because it's not just cool but glamorous. The Prius is cool, both technically (the hybrid engine) and aesthetically. After the initial boring model, designed to look as Camryish as possible, Toyota wisely gave the Prius a cool wrapping. Every time I see one, I think, "What a cool car. Oh yeah, it's a Prius."
For current cool at, however, it's hard to beat the Chrysler Crossfire.
The coolest thing I own is a lot smaller than a purse or a car or even my Razr. It's an amethyst ring by Polish designer Tomasz Plodowsi. It's not expensive, not exclusive, but really, really cool.
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