Red Pepper Flakes. A blog by Imelda Suriato

Ping: Social Networking Garment

Yes, Ping is a social networking garment concept developed by Electricfoxy. It connects to your Facebook account wirelessly and from anywhere so you can stay connected to your friends and groups of friends simply by performing natural gestures that are built into the mechanics of the garments we wear.

“The concept prototype was built on the Arduino Lilypad platform and used a variety of sensors including flexible sensing and conductive threads that are flexible, sewable and washable. The wireless capability was built using the Lylipad Xbee.”

Wearable technology is pretty cool. Maybe a little TMI. What would you call the activity? “Styling” as oppose to “texting”? It could bring back vogue-ing. 🙂

PUMA’s Clever Little Bag

First, my favorite sneakers brand Puma ditched their shoe box. It took 21 months, 2000 ideas and 40-plus packaging prototypes to pore over for the perfect replacement: Clever Little Bag,  a new sustainable packaging system for Puma sneakers designed by Yves Béhar and his team at fuseproject. Read more on this clever and earth-friendly initiative plus some estimate stats  on Clever Little Bag’s impact.

Clever Little Bag is part of puma.safe, one of the three programs within the brand’s social and green-themed initiative PUMAVision: Because a better world in PUMA’s vision would be safer, more peaceful, and more creative than the world we know today.

PUMA believes that its position as the creative leader in Sportlifestyle gives it the opportunity and the responsibility to contribute to a better world for the generations to come and I’m glad it’s not just green or benefit/aid channels — puma.creative is to support artist and creative organizations. Check it out.

Stylish Sony Style

Sony Style’s Bravia microsite has brought back drooling over TV. The site takes  a little long to load but the interface is delicious. Mostly videos, the site showcases the new TV’s ability to tilt 6-degrees back for better viewing, connect to the internet and the social media sphere, etc.  and it’s visually stunning.

I love the control tool: a little flat scroll-wheel-turn-slider-turn-control-button that makes dragging your mouse for control feels very smooth. It’s hard to describe because it feels preciously like you’re actually using your fingertip. Maybe it’s just Friday and I’m having Campari and soda in the office. 🙂

Then there’s the 3D TV. I like the little Flash Twitter post display.

Now we just have to wait for TV signal from cable to catch up.

2010 REBRAND 100 Winners

You read that right! I’m on the cover of a magazine. Well, my infamous namesake that is. 🙂 Eat Your Heart Out, Imelda cover is part of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County’s award-winning rebranding initiatives.

See all of Rebrand’s 2010 Winners. The Before and After transformations are doses of inspiration!

Vogue Stylist

Saw this Vogue Stylist ad while reading the mag at the doctor’s office this am.

The premise: Assist users in styling their wardrobes by uploading pictures of items they already own and allowing the app to mix and match those pieces with of-the-moment monthly picks from the staff along with products from Vogue‘s advertisers.

User can also find items in nearby stores, exclusive savings and product samplings, special event invitations and exclusive videos as part of what they called “unlockable content.” Ninety-one brands participating and over 600 articles of clothing and beauty products. Not bad.

Don’t know who developed the app. It’s been compared to Condé Nast’s other mobile apps (e.g. Lucky Mag‘s app, which is developed by FourSquare). Any ideas?

Read full review from WSJ.