DESIGNER  #HASHTAGS THE LATEST TREND IN TRENDING
The common #hashtag, once the telltale sign of whatâs hot online, is on the way out. In its place, the designer hashtag â bold, colorful, often playful symbols that tell Twitter, Tumblr and the rest that not only are you on top of whatâs trending, youâre trending right along with it. Kate Mossâ new slimming hashtag, which de-emphasizes the âpoundâ in âpound sign.âFrom Gucci and Prada to Dior and D&G, fashion labels have stormed in to revive, revamp, and often revolutionize the off-the-rack, one-size-fits-all # sign. These designer hashtags come at a price â from $25 to $2,500 per use â but advocates say the cost is worth it.âHashtags told you what was trending, but designer hashtags make whatâs trending look trendier,â said Vogue editor Kat Malques. âTheyâre like uber trendy, like almost so trendy that it hasnât even trended yet. Theyâre basically pre-trend.â  Ralph Laurenâs hashtag for men.âThese new hashtags say, âNot only do I know whatâs new and cool, but I look cool telling you about it,â explained Cam McCauley at Dolce & Gabbana, which uses vivid florals and brash polka-dots in its hashtags. âWhen I use one, I feel like Iâm trending.âThe styles certainly run the gamut of the grammatical symbol runway. Kenzo, for example, has opted for an anytime, anywhere hashtag ($99 per use) that simultaneously speaks to your need for something âTotally New,â yet is also not so conceptual and tricked out that it looks like itâs trying too hard. Asian-American designer Jason Wu, meanwhile, has woven Oriental culture into couture by producing a calligraphic masterpiece of a hashtag, ($129 per use), complete with kimono-like cap sleeves.Jason Wuâs Asian-themed hashtag.  Design-world bad boy Marc Jacobs, not surprisingly, has gone retro, releasing a simple black hashtag â show here: # â that reviewers have called âelegant, traditional, and strikingly similar to the hashtags of yore.â Offered in standard Arial, Helvetica, or Verdana, what makes these hashtags different is the price: $499.99 per usage. Taking the counter approach, couturier Derek Lam has a new summer line of hashtags that are, âsimple, light, and revolution-airy.â Instead of four lines in a crosshatch pattern, Lam uses just one horizontal line, âââ which hints at the existence of the other three lines. Reviewers were not impressed. âIt looks like a hyphen,â said InStyle.So far, whether a hashtag is revered or reviled doesnât matter. Twitter, Tumblr andÂ  sites that use #hashtags donât recognize any of the new offerings as hashtags. For designers, however, lack of acceptance is itself a badge of honor â âProof of how trendy we are,â said Lam. And if designer hashtags are a trend, the trend within that trend is minimalist. While Lamâs design is simple, Adobe and Gucci have teamed up to go a step further. Theyâve released a line of âFlashtags,â which disappear in six seconds and cost $25 per use.  Walmartâs customer-inspired ârelaxed waistâ hashtag for "posting online from the comfort of your  trailer home.ââSomething thatâs truly ânowâ should not last for more than six seconds, which is why our flashtags disappear so quickly,â said Adobeâs new VP of Design Ing Miyuchi. âIt happens so fast you really donât have time to think about the topic, much less learn about it. Itâs a perfect reflection of modern life.â But that approach may already be yesterday. Next month, Christian Dior is expected to offer a white-on-white hashtag, an essentially invisible symbol that only the user will know about. âItâs a confidence thing,â explained Dior spokeswoman Feschia Puce. âItâs like, I know this is trending, and Iâm so in the know that I donât need you to know I know because I already know. So you canât see the hashtag, but I know itâs there, and because itâs me, I assume that you know itâs there. We call it the Emporerâs New Hashtag. $2,500 per use.â Celebrities, naturally, have jumped on the #bandwagon. In the fall, Justin Bieber will release a line of hiddenstashtags, Lindsay Lohan will launch rehashtags, Miley Cyrus goes to her roots for whitetrashtags, and of course you-know-who will introduce a line of Kardashtags, which, like their namesake, will automatically tag anyone famous.