The Camera Bag: A Very Pink Camera Vanity Case from Olympus for Mother’s Day
posted Monday, April 23, 2012 at 10:04 AM EDT
Someone at Olympus has simply seen John Waters’ “Hairspray” too many times. Who else could have thought up the very pink, very retro Olympus Happy Vanity Kit for Mother’s Day 2012?
According to its press release, Olympus saw a study that said that in the demographic of under 25 year old married couples, nearly 56% of respondents said that it is Mom, not Dad, who is now the official family photographer and archivist. Modern Moms, it concludes, are the ones shooting "baby’s first steps" and the family vacation.
Taking a cue from the old equation that "technology + pink = woman," Olympus has introduced the perfect gift for Mother’s Day for your photo shooting gal, the Olympus Happy Vanity Kit. It fits the bill for style and color and has a cute 1960s Oleg Cassini look with its pink color and petite black plastic hand straps. A fashion accessory, it goes perfectly with any Mom’s tight silver jeans, high heel shoes and leopard skin, pillbox hat.
As a European press release says (originally in French), “The Happy Vanity Kit...offers everything you need for a mom always on top of her femininity, a gift that will make her blush with pleasure!”
Mamma Mia, it makes me blush with pleasure just to think of it. Moreover, buying gifts for my modern woman is not the favorite activity of this hunter-gatherer. Happily, the Happy Vanity is something I can find in the camera department eliminating the need to slink around the Ladies Lingerie counter like a serial voyeur.
Let’s look at the Happy Pack specs. Nestled, within the pink, hard plastic vanity case in the softest, black plush lining, Mom will find either an elegant silver 14 MP Olympus VG-150 with 4x zoom, or its big sister the VG-160 with a 5x (26mm-130mm) lens in daring, passion flower red.
Snuggled next to the VG-150, there's a 4GB SD memory card and next to the VG-160, a 2GB card. The Happy Pack also includes a lithium-ion battery, USB cable, and darling wrist strap. However, the real prize in the Vanity Case for any Foxy Brown mother is the silver rhinestone camera carrying case. This sparkler will not only protect her camera, but to quote Olympus, it will, “make her camera glow with a thousand lights at parties.”
The Happy Pack is a real vanity case too with room for makeup and other feminine necessities and a large mirror for those moments when Mom has to check her make-up.
The Happy Pack Vanity Case, is currently only available in England and Europe -- where the most stylish women in the world live -- and has a street price of just 70 British pounds or 99 euros ($135.)
According to an Olympus spokesperson (and to the disappointment of American retro fans and kitsch collectors), the Happy Vanity Pack will not be sold in the USA. If you are interested in it though, you can find it on Amazon Europe here.