SolarJacket

One would have thought "Ermenegildo Zegna" would have far too many syllables in his name to condescend the upper levels of Melbourne Central and come up this scheme more befitting an ubergeek National Geographic Store spin-off than the Autumn/Winter '09 runways of Rome. But there it is. A solar-powered jacket.

The solar cells (mounted on each sleeve) are detachable but the cables are woven into the fabric and connected to a battery for the purpose of running a heating system in the jacket's collar or for recharging a phone or iPod.

It's application to architecture? Case in Point. Not so much a technology to be borrowed from fashion as an example of the (potential) cross-fertilization between fashion and architecture. It was in our field that solar cells became commercially viable and they are as yet to be implemented in other industries with equivalent success, hence the redundancy of our borrowing this idea back from the catwalks. It's also worth noting the novelty of this solar-powered fashion: it isn't really a solar-powered jacket, it's a jacket with gimmicky solar cells stuck on - in other words - the application of the borrowed technology (solar cells) isn't integrated with the practiced medium (fashion). It's a common pitfall in the practice of architecture, too.