It's time for a fall fashion show -- no not for the latest unwearable art from the runway, but for the latest in home appliances. Tear yourself away from your favorite online mall for a moment and head down to your local electronics superstore so you can see the gear firsthand. Like us, you'll be forgiven for thinking you've wandered into a Macintosh showroom -- even the forever-red Dirt Devil has turned an ...ah... "iCatching" translucent blue.
iCandy is everwhere this season, with its translucent, look-inside-me plastic and work-sure-is-fun colors. The home appliance industry has been taking cues from the Mac's trend-setting design and turning out some attractive and well-designed ready-to-wear gear for your home.
Any fashion victim will tell you, if you want "Le Look" without hemorrhaging plastic, it's all about accessorizing. Your kitchen's a great place to start. Sharp's colorful "Half Pint" microwave oven ( $99.95) is a showy 14-inch cube that comes in translucent blue, orange, red (shown above), green, or purple (and good ole black and white) and is designed for limited spaces such as dorms and starter apartments. Oster has added a splash of color to the traditional blender Sunbeam, $39.99), now available in translucent strawberry, blueberry, and grape. Industrial design buffs will also want to check out the museum quality 5-speed blender by Michael Graves ($59.99 at Target).
One of the most eye-catching and unexpected finds this season comes in a small package. Honeywell has introduced a line of translucent thermostat rings in six decorator colors ($10 at Honeywell) -- blue, green, orange, teal, pink and red - that'll change that oh-so-20th century look of your home or office in a snap.
. It has a fun, comicbook feel to it.
At DLT, we fully understand the metaphysical urge to demystify the inner workings of a machine -- but on your vacuum cleaner? To each her own, and hence the stampede of vacuum cleaners with clear plastic, bagless receptacles that let you watch the dust bunnies as you suck them up. If this is your idea of a good time, then you'll love the new blue Dirt Devil Vision Lite ($224.99 at Amazon). Hoover's transparent green, twin-chambered vacuum ($184.99 at Hoover) has been redesigned to let you see its powerful new Wind Tunnel technology at work.
Rowenta opts for transparent blue water tanks.
LL Bean, for instance, that purveyor of log cabin chic, has gone hip-by-association in their fall home catalog. In a recent makeover to appeal to a younger, urban market, they feature an iMac in a "cottage work center." And the Crate and Barrel catalog's use of a blueberry iMac to dress up a standard home office shoot is like squeezing Aunt Mabel into a Donna Karan.
 Dare we wait for the House of iCandy's spring line and its influence? Apple makes it a policy not to comment on their impact on the design market or future trends in their hardware. We're betting on a big lucite craze in 2001 inspired by the Apple G4 Cube. Can polyester cream-colored disco suits with PDA pockets built into them be far behind?
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