WHO, WHAT, WEARABLE

WiseWear Calder

Iris Apfel, the nonagenarian New York City style icon, is famous for brick-red lipstick, huge eyeglasses, and stacks and stacks of bold bracelets. Lately those stacks have included a wearable—a smart bracelet from fashion tech brand WiseWear, which tapped the style star to be the face of its Socialite collection. The line includes three chunky-chic bracelets, available in 18k gold- or palladium-plated finishes, embedded with a device that’s both an activity tracker and a notifier that alerts users to incoming calls, texts, or emails with vibration patterns. 

What We Liked: All three bracelet styles are gorgeous, but the Calder—an elegant, minimal design that culminates in interlocking peaks—is a piece we would lust after even if it weren’t fitted with a smart device. The bracelet wisely doesn’t try to do too much—its functions are basic and work very well; the accompanying app is easy to use and looks terrific; and vibration patterns can be customized.

What We Didn’t Like: There’s no heart rate monitor—according to the company, the wrist is an inaccurate monitoring spot—and the device is only water-resistant, not waterproof.  

Best Feature: Aside from its stunning design, a distress messaging function that allows users to send a text message to a preapproved list of contacts, along with a geotagged location showing where they are. ($325; wisewear.com)

Pictured: Accessory maven Iris Apfel shows how she stacks her WiseWear bracelets. 

 

APP CHAT

Project September

It looks like Instagram. It feels like Instagram. But Project September is Instagram on mega-marketing steroids. The free app, which counts fashion pros Nina Garcia and Christy Turlington among its users, is a fashion-centric platform with an ultra-polished interface that lets users buy and sell products by tagging photos with bright green dots that link to a brand’s online product pages. For users, the app offers a new way to “follow” friends, companies, and celebrities—with the added bonus of being able to buy almost every product they see. For brands, Project September feels like the antidote to social media’s longstanding e-commerce problem. (Free for iOS only in iTunes Store; projectseptember.com) 

 

SUPPLY IN DEMAND

Triplet Hawk 10x

Buying a loupe, says Kassoy president Joanne Slawitsky, is like buying a car: “They all essentially do the same thing, but some do it better.” The Triplet Hawk 10x by Swiss-Axe for Kassoy, she claims, “is the Rolls-Royce of the loupe market.” Certainly, the 21 mm loupe flirts with greatness. Its ergonomic design is supremely comfortable, and it features a lens that’s achromatic, anti-reflective, and aplanatic. “The unrivaled optics allow for almost zero spherical distortion,” she adds. That means significantly less eyestrain—which, for bench jewelers, is a luxury in itself. ($479.95; kassoy.com)