The hottest trend in the Japanese phone industry are super pimped and glammed up Deco-Den mobile phones. Deco-den, short for ‘decorated denwa’ (telephone) involves customising handsets with all sorts of weird and wonderful things – from sticking a fake creamy plastic cake on the top of your phone to adding coloured Rhinestone crystals to form a picture of your pets cat’s face!
You can either hand your phone over and have it customised in the many Deco-Den shops which are pooping up around Japan, or if you are feeling adventurous you can even buy the required materials and parts and have a go yourself.
The average cost of having your phone customised by a Deco-Den specialist is around ¥18,000 (US $170) and each handcrafted phone is said to take about two hours to complete.
GlamBaby.com have been offering their Deco-Den service since 2000, and owner Mr Watanabe says:
In 2003 and 2005, they became slightly popular, and this year there has been a wave of demand for decorated mobiles. People tend to associate decorated phones with trendy young women, but actually we have all sorts for customers.
Well Mr Watanabe, you certainly won’t be having me as one your customers, sorry…..
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Henry 09.22.08 at 8:13 am
Those animal designs look rather scary….
Mahogany Chic 09.22.08 at 12:52 pm
Those phones are too cute.
Cake Recipes 12.06.08 at 8:18 am
Haha, looks good.