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Zegna Sport integrating ElekTex controls in Bluetooth iJACKET
If you're fairly confident that you've seen an iJacket from Zegna before, you'd be right, but the case-sensitive iJACKET is upping the ante by including Bluetooth along with Eleksen's ElekTex smart fabric controls. Dubbed "communication clothing," the coat will reportedly enable users to "use their cellphone and simultaneously listen to music on their iPod," which is sure to result in quite a few incomprehensible conversations. Nevertheless, wearers will be able to mange both their handset and DAP through a "sleek control embedded in the jacket sleeve," and you can even expect the music volume to decrease when you receive an incoming call. Of course, all these luxuries won't come cheap (especially on a Zegna), but even we think "starting at $1,700" is a bit extreme.
Ermenegildo Zegna's iSolarX jacket juices up gadgetry
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.
Ermenegildo Zegna's iPod-ready iJacket
If you're not exactly feeling the bevy of snowboard-related iPod jackets, and wouldn't be caught dead in Levi's RedWire DLX jeans (us either), Ermenegildo Zegna is rolling out a fashionable alternative to those slightly bulkier offerings. While we've already got the means to control Apple's media-playing gem in nearly every manner imaginable, Zegna's iJacket rocks a stylish, red shell with a subtle control pad on the left sleeve. There's nothing atypical aside the usual volume, track, and play / pause controls, but this "luxury sport jacket" requires no special handling when all dirtied up and ready for the washing machine. The oh-so-versatile coat presumably plays nice with any 'Pod sporting a dock connector, and while the $750 pricetag might be asking a bit much, we must admit Apple's newly-released (PRODUCT) RED nano would fit the part quite well here.[Via BookOfJoe]
