Spotted at New York Fashion Week: Butterflies and hummingbirds hovered inside the tents, but these particular species came equipped with at least a gigabyte or two.

Designer Vivienne Tam’s“Butterfly Lovers” digital clutch laptop from Hewlett-Packard made its debut on the runway with her Spring and Summer 2010 collection. Just inside the entrance to the Bryant Park Tents, a hummingbird was ready for its close-up — on the cover of one of the Palm Pixi Artist Series limited-edition cellphones on display.

Just two of the most colorful examples of how fashion is using technology to court design-savvy customers, one of the biggest trends seen at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, which wrapped up late Thursday night.

“For me, fashion plus technology equals ‘double happiness,’” Tam told Reuters backstage.

Indeed, the “enter” key on her latest HP laptop is imprinted with the Chinese characters for “double happiness.”

The champagne-gold laptop will have more capacity and more features than her first limited-edition HP digital clutch with the red “Peony” print cover, which Tam unveiled on the runway last September. The “Peony” laptop — light enough for a woman to carry like a clutch evening bag — has 1 gigabyte of RAM, according to the Neiman Marcus online catalog, where it’s listed “in stock” for $699.99.

Tam says her inspiration came from the classic Chinese love story, the “Butterfly Lovers,” who are regarded as China’s “Romeo and Juliet.” A classical music lover, Tam noted that this year is the 50th anniversary of the Butterfly Lovers Concerto.

HP sees fashionable tech for women as a golden market, with plenty of opportunity to expand with wireless mice, storage devices and other accessories, says Satjiv S. Chahil, senior vice president of global marketing.

Check out this video of the “Butterfly Lovers” laptop on display at the Fashion Week party in Vivienne Tam’s boutique:

Meanwhile, Palm aims to serve fashion-conscious men and women with its Pixi Artist Series phones with limited-edition covers designed by five artists. The Hummingbird cover by artist Cole Gerst in bright orange and green on a light turquoise background looks unmistakably feminine, while the Skull by artist Jeremy Fish in cream and black appears more in sync with a male aesthetic.

The new Palm Pixi phone line will be launched for the holiday season in partnership with Sprint Nextel, says Palm senior product manager Mike Akamine. Each artist’s design will be offered on only 5,000 phones — for a total limited run of 25,000 units, Akamine told Reuters.
Each phone will have about 7 gigabytes of available internal user storage.
Check out the Palm Pixi Artist Series phones:

http://www.palm.com/us/products/phones/pixi/artist.html

For a look at another designer using tech to reach more customers, check out this video of Norma Kamali showing her spring clothes outside the Apple store in Soho:

Take a look at Reuters story:
Technology in starring role at New York Fashion Week
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE58H4TD20090918

Check out how designers at New York’s Fashion Week are using technology for inspiration, on the runway, behind the scenes and for business.

In its most obvious cameo, technology showed up at Vivienne Tam’s Spring 2009 show on Tuesday, where models sashayed down the runway clutching slim, red HP notebook computers instead of evening bags.

The limited-edition computer, which she called a “digital clutch,” featured the Tam collection’s signature red peony print on its cover. It will be available early next year, sometime around the Chinese New Year, Tam told a Reuters reporter backstage before her show Tuesday night.

She added that the peony’s petals on the laptop cover symbolize multi-tasking, which is synonymous with being a woman in today’s tech-oriented society she said.

HP said it’s the first time a fashion designer has partnered with a computer company, though others are teaming up with mobile phone companies.

LG Mobile Phones said on Thursday it is partnering with budding fashion designer Christian Siriano, who made the media spotlight for winning Season Four of Bravo television’s popular reality show “Project Runway”.

At Siriano’s fashion show on Thursday, he will show a scarf designed for LG’s newest phone, the LG Lotus.

Polo Ralph Lauren Corp recently unveiled a mobile phone technology that allows consumers to scan barcodes found in magazine ads and shop from their phones.

Other designer 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. DKNY also used a barcode technology for invitations and seating for its fashion show, asking guests to r.s.v.p. on line and then scanning their invites at the show.

But Karan did have some uninvited guests, so maybe the system is still evolving.

Depending on how you look at it, technological advances can both help and hurt our free time. On one hand, it gives us more time to do the things we love, like shopping and going to fashion shows. But it also means we can now work from cocktail parties and black-tie events without toting a clunky computer.

(With reporting by Jan Paschal and Michelle Nichols)

Also in the basket:

Accessories playing big at New York’s Fashion Week

Walgreen sues San Francisco over tobacco sale ban

Designers say “green” fashion sustainable

 Retailers reprogram workers in efficiency push — WSJ (subscription required)

(Photo: Courtesy of HP/Vivienne Tam)