While
Ermenegildo Zegna made the plunge into high-end, electronic savvy outerwear last Fall, its newest piece ups the ante by allowing gadgetry that you keep on your person to be charged up whilst out and about -- sans batteries. The Solar JKT is based around
Interactive Wear AG's iSolarX technology, and sports a number of
solar modules around the neoprene collar that can pass energy through conducting textile leads for storage in a buffer battery or to charge a connected device directly. The jacket can even be switched from 5V to 6V in order to handle a more diverse group of gizmos, and integrated LEDs enable you to quickly view the state of the
charge. Sadly, there's no mention of an expected pricetag for this uber-useful garb, but it will likely cater specifically to the affluent set when it hits the market as part of the 2008 Spring / Summer collection.
