Polaroid Plus Sunglasses Not a Totally Gaga Idea

What do you get if you appoint Lady Gaga as creative director at Polaroid? Why, a pair of sunglasses that can take pictures, of course.

Gaga took on the role a year ago as part of Polaroid’s attempts to rebrand itself after getting out of the instant-print game at the end of 2008. This led to the rather odd offering of the Polaroid 300, a “fun” camera that printed pictures on to business-card sized sheets. But at $89.99 for the camera and the equivalent of a dollar a photo for film, it was a nostalgic novelty at best.

The same can’t be said about Gaga’s new range, the Polaroid Grey Label range. (There is an explanation available about the ethos of the range. Believe me, you don’t want to read it.)

The first of three products in the range is the GL30, which combines digital camera functions with the printing option and design of classic Polaroid machines.

There’s also a portable mobile printer that’s designed to wirelessly connect to cameraphones. Instead of traditional paper, it uses sheets containing crystals that start off clear, but turn cyan, yellow or magenta when heated.

But it’s the camera glasses that are most striking, and it’s hard to argue with the claim “never before has the world seen fashion, photography and technology come together in one singular product.”

As well as being functional protective sunglasses, they can shoot both stills and video. The content is captured on a USB memory stick in one of the earpieces, though the data can also be transferred via Bluetooth.

Apparantly Gaga came up with the idea while on tour, when she strung together two iPod screens to make a pair of movie-playing glasses. Well, I’ve heard of stranger ways for pop stars to pass the way on a tour bus.