Monday Obsession: Fashion Illustrator and It Girl Dallas Shaw’s iPhone Cases

How to sheath your cell in style.

Dallas Shaw’s designs for iPhone and iPad cases make tech stylish. Photo via Pretty Smitten.

Confession: I have a very weird obsession with finding the perfect cell phone case. It started about 10 years ago, when I searched far and wide for a blinged-out cover. (I ended up shelling out a pretty penny for a kit that let you do it yourself. The crystals stayed on for about 2.5 days and then they’d get stuck to my hair every time I talked on the phone. It wasn’t pretty.)

Now my phone sports this bunny-ear case, and I’ve been pretty content with it—until I saw these new creations by Wilmington-based fashion illustrator and all-around stylish gal Dallas Shaw.

I’ve known Dallas for a few years now; I featured her custom fashion illustrations in the magazine a few years back. (I got one as a birthday present; it ranks up there as one of my most favorite gifts ever. You can see it—it’s the header photo on my Twitter page!) Anyway, Dallas’s life is basically one gorgeous Instagram feed, and her illustrations are just as lovely.

She’s parlayed her artistic talent into some major fashion contracts, which include collaborations with Chanel, DKNY, Ralph Lauren, Anthropologie and Kate Spade. Her latest collab is with Pretty Smitten, an adorable online home-, gift- and stationery personalization site, and I’m obsessed.

Dallas created two limited-edition fashion illustrations—both done in her signature airy watercolor style—that are available now on Pretty Smitten’s Etsy site ($44). One features a willowy fashion girl (distressed denim, neon beanie, strappy heels and a moto jacket); the other is a simple, dainty-but-cool bow. You can add your monogram to each, and the designs are available for iPhones 3, 4 and 5, iPod Touch 4, iPad Mini, and iPads 2 and 3.  Both are way chicer than your run-of-the-mill cases, and—dare I say it—have less, ahem, Playboy connotations than my dear bunny-eared case.