Science had a major breakthrough several years ago, when researchers working for Australia’s national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), discovered a way to integrate microscopic motion sensors into the elbows of a long sleeve T-shirt. that enabled the wearer to create music simply by waving his arms. The sensors inside the Wearable Instrument Shirt, as it is called, pick up the wearer’s pick up your ‘air guitar’ arm movements and relay the information wirelessly to one’s ownyour computer, where digital audio files convert the motions to sound.

Although the Wearable Instrument Shirt is still in the scientific stage and not yet ready for retail, luxury clothing makers are already using similar advances in textile technology to literally bring menswear to life. This fall, for example, Italian clothier Ermenegildo Zegna, has teamed with German-owned Interactive Wear, a two-year-old maker of technically -advanced “‘smart”’ textile technology, to create the world’s first ski jacket powered by solar energy.

The $1,350 Ermenegildo Zegna solar-powered ski jacket can recharge your cell phone on or off the slopes.

The waterproof Microtene jacket is equipped with has solar cells embedded in its neoprene collar, which converts that is capable of converting sunlight into renewable power—meaning you can fully charge capable of fully charging your mobile cell phone or, iPod and other handheld communication devices even while standing hundreds of miles from the nearest electric power grid. Best of all, the collar is removable. It so it can still be used as a power source long after you’ve left the slopes.

In addition to the Zegna Sport Solar Ski Jacket, which retails for $1,350 at all Ermenegildo Zegna boutiques, Interactive Wear has also pioneered a new textile technology, called iThermX, that is capable of generating heat. The first application is being offered by Reusch in a new line of sensor- controlled heating snow gloves called Thermotec.

Other companies such as Eleksen, Soft Switch, Textronics, and Fibertronics, among others, are also testing their own ‘intelligent clothing’ ideas, including men’s suits that can control hidden electronic devices with the simple touch of your sleeve, and children’s backpacks capable of sending distress signals to police.

www.zegna.com

BY WILLIAM KISSEL