Jeremy Scott, the man behind the gargantuan yet chic Barbie and Mickey D’s-inspired Moschino phone cases that saw our trusty sidekicks through hell and high water, is back at it again with the statement tech protectors.
Google has enlisted the pop culture prince to design a six-piece range of Live Cases for the Google Pixel phone. In crafting the cartoon-patterned cases, Scott stuck with his preferred subjects: apparel, accessories and foodstuffs. On one case, overexcited champagne bottles pop their corks at the sight of flirty, foam-topped flutes. On another, snapbacks flash toothy grins as cheeky white gloves cross their fingers for luck or exoneration from lies.
Jeremy Scott at Moschino Spring 2017; Image: Imaxtree
Each snap-on case comes equipped with Near-field communication technology, allowing the Google Pixel to detect its presence and prompt an animated wallpaper app to appear on your screen. The cases also hold the key to a custom “J’emoji” keyboard (step aside, Iris Apfel and Kim Kardashian) populated by cutesy characters designed by Scott. New J’emojis will pop up daily, both on owners’ keyboards and in Scott’s celebrity #squad’s Instagram captions. (Because #marketing.)
“What’s really exciting about these cases is that the emojis jump off the cases into your screens. I’ve never had the ability to do this before, as the technology is something new from Google,” Scott told WWD of the collab. “I was thinking a lot about how the virtual has become reality with our online lives, and avatars are speaking so much more for us than ever in the social media atmosphere that we now inhabit. So when Google came a knockin’ I was ready for them.” Frankly, the idea of an emoji leaping onto our screen at its own volition sounds a little intrusive. There’s a reason why Microsoft Word did away with Clippy, right?
That said, we trust Jeremy Scott to know what he’s doing and, unlike the new Louis Vuitton iPhone cases, these Google gadgets will only set you back $40. (The phone itself costs $649.)
Live Cases will be available to shop at the Google Store starting tomorrow, November 10, through the end of January.
