Rebecca Minkoff is Closing Wearable Tech’s Gender (and Style) Gap

Models carrying Rebecca Minkoff’s new smartphone-charging bags walk the designer’s spring 2016 runway. Photo: Instagram/@rebeccaminkoff.

For spring 2016, Rebecca Minkoff is determined to put the “wearable” in wearable tech — and to finally make it fashionable, too.

At today’s New York Fashion Week runway show, Minkoff debuted a new line of tech accessories, including a line of wallets, wristlets, and bags that charge your smartphone on the go, created in partnership with mobile accessory brand Case-Mate. The crossbody bags we saw on the runway were notable for combining fashion and function, with trendy fringe, tassels, and hardware — oh, and dedicated compartments for your iPhone 6 or Galaxy 6S in addition to the all-important changing technology. We also saw new leather and snakeskin bands for the Apple Watch (the double-wrap version will be a fashion-girl favorite).

Rebecca Minkoff’s new smartphone-charging bags. Photo: Courtesy of Rebecca Minkoff.

In a genius marketing move, the new accessories are available for pre-order today on Rebeccaminkoff.com. And unlike pre-ordering runway items at, say, M’oda Operandi, the accessories are slated to ship this month. Minkoff clearly gets the way women use technology today — and that they don’t want to wait six months to get the cool accessory they saw on Instagram this morning. After her runway show, the designer told Yahoo Style that she sees the mobile accessories as of a piece with her spring collection’s free-spirited Marianne Faithfull inspiration: “Women these days don’t want to be tied to an outlet, they don’t need a massive bag, it’s just her phone, credit cards, and that’s it.”

The Rebecca Minkoff model at left sports the designer’s new double-wrap Apple Watch wristband. Photo: Instagram/@rebeccaminkoff.

Uri Minkoff, the brand’s cofounder and CEO (and Rebecca’s brother), pointed out the double standard of women’s mobile accessories lagging behind men’s: “There’s so much out there for men, but there has to be something for women, by women, and that they love to use.” Rebecca added: “It’s about including the phone in her life and style in a fashionable, sexy way.”

Rebecca Minkoff’s leather bands make your Apple Watch customizable. Photo: Courtesy of Rebecca Minkoff.

Speaking with Yahoo Style, Instagram’s head of fashion partnerships (and former Lucky editor in chief) Eva Chen called the new bags “brilliant,” elaborating: “It’s just a fact that all of us walking around here today have our phones in our hands, so the easier and cooler you can make it to live a digitally-connected life, the better.”

Chen also plans to make room on her wrist for Minkoff: “I liked the gray snakey wristband. I’m going to try to get on the waitlist for the Hermès collaboration, but why not do both?!”

By making the marriage of style and tech seamless, Rebecca Minkoff’s making it so women don’t have to choose, and that’s a strategy that’ll pay off big.

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