Hewlett-Packard and world-renowned Asian fashion designer Vivienne Tam have been working together to create the HP Vivienne Tam Special Edition notebook. However, anyone attending Tam’s fashion show during New York’s Fashion Week at Bryant Park Tuesday has probably already seen it.

The special-edition notebook–which looks to be an HP mini-note, except it’s sporting a 10-inch screen–debuted with the usual fanfare a fashion show receives at Fashion Week, but with a high-tech twist.

Models sashayed onto the catwalk workin’ the designer notebook as a clutch purse, while looking fierce in Tam’s clothing.

The notebook is gleaming red and bursting with peony flowers–a signature staple of Tam’s collection–on the lid. The peony design is then meticulously carried inside the notebook, under the keypad. The laptop also features a extra special enter key that bears the Chinese symbol for double happiness. The design was inspired by Tam’s “China Chic” style, which is recognized from the runways in Milan to the Olympics in Beijing and represents her personal mantra to live well and be beautiful. The notebook also features a complimentary embroidered storage sleeve that helps keep the exterior protected while being carried as a clutch.

The “digital clutch” represents the first time a computer company has partnered with a fashion designer to create a notebook PC as well as have it debut at a fashion show. In addition to the design of the notebook, Tam worked with HP to design its accessories and packaging.

This isn’t the only instance of technology meeting designer. Christian Siriano’s (of Project Runway fame, season four) fashion show will show a scarf designed for LG’s newest phone, the Lotus.

Last month, Polo Ralph Lauren unveiled special downloadable software for camera phones that allows users to scan codes–placed in print ads, mailings, and store windows–and be directed to a phone-friendly version of a Ralph Lauren Web site, where you can shop.

Other design houses, including Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs, and Zac Posen, are now using technology offered by Fashion GPS, which uses global positioning technology to keep track of inventory and samples by using either bar codes or radio-frequency identification tags to organize a fashion closet and check items in and out. It lets designers put together a look book for editors to browse online.

And DKNY also used bar code technology for invitations and seating for its fashion show, asking guests to RSVP online and then scan their invites at the show.

HP also launched a way to help fashionistas around the globe find design inspiration online, called the “Tech Chic” virtual experience. HP went all out creating a virtual catwalk, a designer tour hosted by Tam, and a “design bot” gadget inspiring users to dress up their computers with Tam-designed wallpaper, screensaver, and icons–all of which are available now in the United States and in early October worldwide.

The HP Vivienne Tam Special Edition notebook is expected to be available early next year. No pricing is available, however, and specs are pretty non-existent (Intel Atom CPU?), but coming from a high-end fashion designer like Vivienne Tam, we can expect it’ll cost some cha-ching.

Link:www.cnet.com