Argentine clothing line Indarra DTX created an impressive collection of Interactive apparel ranging from iPod controlling jackets and pants to cellphone charging jackets.

Fashion Designer Julieta Gayoso, founder of Indarra DTX said that technology has become today such an important part of life that it is necessary to be available with a person everywhere.

Her mobile fashion collection includes the Touchpad jacket with a smart textile interface allowing the control of an iPod from the sleeve. The fabric is touch sensible and allows to change tracks or turn up the volume with a tip on the sleeve. Convenient, simple and keeps the iPod safe in the pocket.

The second iPod ready apparel are the Joystick Pants for men and women which come in a cool look and have a joystick like iPod control just above the side pocket. The twist here is that this controller operates wireless the iPod which can be in a pant pocket or in a bag up to 18 meters (59 feet) away from you (your pants). I must admit: a great feature but one have to make sure the receiver on the iPod doesn’t get lost.

Having the hands full with other stuff while running around doing all kind of errands, the quick skip of a song or hitting pause to listen to public announcements becomes very convenient when it can be done on the sleeve or the trouser without having to take out the iPod from a pocket.

With mobility comes the power management problem. Often enough our little gadgets run out of battery power just in the wrong moment (as there would ever be a right moment). Julieta added to her mobility collection the FV Module Jacket integrating a flexible solar panel into a jacket. The solar panels is connected to a storage battery in the inside pocket where up to eight electronic devices can be recharged at the same time whenever there is sunshine around you.

The solar panel is removable, no point to have it on a jacket when there is no shun shine. But when the sun hits the panel fully, a cellphone for example can be charged in around 2 hours.

At this moment Julieta Gayoso’s collection is only available via Indarra DTX for the local (Argentine) market but she is working on a second interactive fashion collection and hopes to begin exporting products outside Argentina in 2009.

It’s refreshing to see more companies, big or small, coming out with interactive clothing giving the interested consumer diversity and choices.

Less than two month after Levi’s® presented the Redwire™ DLX spring/summer 2007 collection, the Jeans are hitting the stores now.

The Redwire™ DLX is available in US and Japan in two different styles and two colors for men and for women.

One model is named Carrot, has the Slough fit and tapered leg. The Capri Redwire DXL is based on the Knee Knocker models with Slough fit as well.

Both Redwire™ DLX models have the iPod® docking cradle built into a hidden side pocket. A red wire (yeah, that’s why they call it Redwire) connects the cradle to the Jeans. Retractable headphones are fixed in a housing on the waistband.

The removable joystick is part of the watch pocket which controls the standard functions of the iPod like play, pause, track forward/back and adjust volume.

The Carrot and the Capri models come in black-casted indigo ‘Black Matrix‘ or bleached-out ‘White Nasty‘ denim.

Our style verdict: the Carrot looks far better than the very basic model from Levi’s first range last year. We welcome the larger selection of colors and styles. Let’s give Levi’s a thump’s up for their new Wearable Electronic range.

You can order the Redwire™ DLX Carrot on Levi’s® US online store for $260.- and the Capri goes for $ 250.- If you live in Japan, you can order the Redwire™ DLX models by ZoZo.

The winter season is over, no more iPod Jackets and other Wearable Electronic winter gear.

Levis, a well known contributor to the Wearable Electronic trend – think about the ICD+ Jacket, co-developed and designed between Philips Design and Levis – has not less than eleven new styles of jeans and trousers for men and women in their collection for the spring/summer 2007 season.

That’s excellent news for us iPod addicted folks that need iPod compatible outfits after we got used to that over the last winter season.

This new collection for 2007 follows the successful retail launch of the Red Wire DLX jeans in Fall 2006. It is also highly noticeable that next to the high product sales, Levi Strauss has reported that the Fibretronic enabled products have added US$5 billion of brand equity to Levis.

Now this is ‘music in our ears’ as well. We from talk2myShirt are fully convinced that Wearable Electronic is on the eve of becoming ‘big’ business and this massive launch from no one less than Levis is yet another ‘proof’ of our statement.

Like the first ‘RedWire DLX’ jeans so does the new collection incorporate a custom designed iPod control system developed by Fibretronic.

The RedWire DLX jeans use Fibretronic’s ‘Fiddler‘ joystick controller to operate the usual iPod functions play/pause, rewind, fast forward, volume up and volume down. The system includes an audio socket embedded in the watch pocket to provide a remote port for the connection of earphones.

A textile cable, designed in Levis signature red color, carries the joystick commands and audio signals from the watch pocket, through the jeans and into the dedicated iPod pocket located on the thigh. The textile cable connects to Fibretronic’s iPod interfacing electronics which are housed in a specially designed cradle that also functions as a docking station for the iPod.

The partnership between Levis and Fibretronics turned out quite successful and we can not await the moment the new collection will be released for ‘public viewing’ and in the shops.

Judging form the previous RedWire DLX, we expect a prize tag of around $ 250.-

If they look cool (this time) we might jump in(on) one. Make sure you check again our Blog, we will bring the complete range as soon as it is available.

[source: Fibretronic]

 URANIUM Jeans is a French company devoted to bring the newest and innovative interactive clothing to market.

URANIUM Jeans introduced concept designs of Jeans and T-Shirts that have a flexible color micro-screen Display, made up of 273 pixels, embedded into the clothing. The display content can be changed to show different images/words using the built-in remote control.

The company claims that some models can work even with your cell phone through data transmission to change images/words. Up to 18 slogans with a maximum of 25 characters each and 33 animated pictures can be stored in the memory of the display.

The Uranium collection will sell for 90 Euros for a T-shirt and up to 250 Euros for a pair of jeans. Stores will open in the main fashion capitals of the world in the next months. The first store to open will be in Paris. The Los Angeles opening is planned for late summer 2006.

Our opinion: not really for so called ‘high fashion’ but what is this anyway?! If you can see yourself being bold (fashion wise) and like bringing colors to your life and the people around you then go for it.

Others glue or stitch sticker with slogans on their clothing (and can not even change them at will), so don’t be shy and show the world what you think about it.

Now it’s up to Uranium to deliver on it’s promise and help us to enlighten our T-Shirts and Jeans.

The Levi’s RedWire DLX aka iJean is another clothing item that tries to integrate the iPod usage in an unobstrusive and fashionable way.

This is one of the first pieces of apparel offered by a mainstream brand to integrate the iPod technology.

The iPod is connected inside a side pocket. The jean is machine washable once the iPod is removed. The “Hip” remote control is externally designed into the jeans’ watch pocket to enable operation of the iPod. Standard control functions like play/pause, track forward, track back and adjust the volume control are possible without removing the iPod from the pocket.

A retractable headphone unit has been built directly into the jean to help prevent tangles and efficiently manage the iPod earphone wires.

The RedWire part of the type name is explained by the red ribbon with the wires inside, that connects the iPod to its assigned side pocket. A very visible sign of the ‘specialty’ of this Jean but might not always be practical.

As of this writing, Levis is offering the iJean in The Netherlands for 199.- Euro.

To learn more about it on the Bright Techlifestyle Blog (it is in Dutch).