After her last year’s breakthrough innovation, Wearable Solar, Dutch fashion designer Pauline van Dongen has come up with a revamped version titled Solar Shirt that combines not only the high-tech advantage of charging a smartphone but also signature stylish looks of high-street fashion.
Developed in collaboration with Netherlands’ Holst Centre, the attractive, off-the-peg everydaywear T-shirt features solar panels and flexible electronics that can charge cell phones and other portable devices including MP3 players, cameras and GPS systems in a jiffy.
“With Holst Centre's technology, we were able to seamlessly integrate the technology and the design so they mutually inform each other – advancing the concept and value of fashion. We've taken solar fashion from the catwalk to the high street, with an attractive yet practical garment that people could wear every day,” the designer talked about her new updated collaborative invention in a press statement.
Commenting on the same, Margreet de Kok from the Eindhoven-based centre explains, “Pauline is one of the leading names in wearable technology, and her design shows how technology and fashion can complement each other to create desirable clothing that has a function.”
The Solar Shirt generates power from 120 thin-film solar cells integrated into its fabric. In bright sunlight, it produces around 1 W of electricity – enough to charge a typical phone in a few hours. Indoors, the shirt generates enough power to keep a battery charged.
The shirt made its first public appearance at South by South West (SXSW) Interactive, Austin, Texas in March, 2015. (PB)
