Luxury fabrics, understated design, striking colour combinations and a small, gold capitalised logo. Since S/S10, Phoebe Philo's accessories for Céline have become as iconic as her clothing designs. Their beauty lies in their simplicity – Philo is one of a handful designers who understand that not all women crave logo loaded, trinket dripping handbags. For the autumn/winter 2011 season, Céline added iPad cases to their accessories roster, as did designers such as Yves Saint Laurent, Azzedine Alaïa and Comme des Garçons.
What marks the Céline design is its box shape – whereas many other luxury versions are simple slip cases, this version is described as an iPad "box" and features numerous compartments. Crafted in Italy from smooth, high quality leather with a thick, gold zip, the case features two inner compartments – one designated for holding documents and cards and another padded space for housing one's iPad. The boxes come in navy, brown and black leather, whereas AnOther's chosen design comes in black python with a fluoro orange leather interior. Fluoro orange featured on numerous bags in the A/W11 collection, including the classic flap bag, the cabas and minaudiere. A graphic highlight to the collection's white, black, grey, navy, blood red and forest green is a demonstration of Philo's skill in devising modernist and confident colour palettes.
Selected as the latest Object of Desire, AnOther invited illustrator Toby Melville-Brown to reinterpret the coveted design, who specialises in large-scale landscape and transport technical drawings. Inspired by the various compartments and components of the design, Melville-Brown referenced field guides, traditionally used to help the reader identify wildlife or other objects of natural occurrence and date back to the 17th century. Melville-Brown's design illustrates the various details of the iPad box, such as the gold monogrammed zip [Fig. 2], handle [Fig. 3], the python exterior [Fig. 4] and sleek interior pockets [Fig. 6]. "I wanted to document every angle and present my findings as a field guide," the illustrator said. "Particularly enjoyable, is the way the python maps the curved edges. Its richly detailed casing seems to be the perfect framing, for the minimal yet sensational, orange leather interior."
Céline iPad box in leather is priced £1900; the python with orange leather interior priced £2300. Stockists will include Dover Street Market, Selfridges, Harrods, Browns, Matches, Harvey Nichols and Harrods.
