Summer has formally started in the northern hemisphere bringing with it long, sunny days. The right time to introduce our readers to another chameleon fashion technology, this time reacting on UV (ultra violet light) coming so plentiful from our sun.

SolarActive®, US based manufacturer and supplier of Photochromatic Materials ranging from sprays, coatings, plastic resin, ink and the reason for our attention: Photochromatic yarn.

We have covered before color changing chameleon fashion based on Thermochromatic technology changing color by a change of temperature.

Photochromatic, derived from two words meaning ‘light’ and ‘color’, are materials to which a low percentage of a light-sensitive chemical has been added creating the effect of materials to darken (become visible) in the presence of strong light and to resume its original transparency when the light intensity is decreased.

The effect of the SolarActive yarn is stunning:

Almost invisible sewn, embroidered or stitched design when indoors but coming to a vibrant colorful life when stepping in front of the door.

SolarActive® has tons of finished products in their store but I guess for proactive reader of talk2myShirt the wide selection of color active yarns – follow this link – is the most interesting one.

For my part, I will order some test samples and experiment with them during the long, sunny summer days ahead.

During the past few days, portable solar charging for cell-phones have made the news rounds as a couple of cell-phones with solar panels on one side have been introduced during last weekends MWC (Mobile Wireless Congress) in Spain.

While the idea to make self charging, power grid independent devices is highly appreciative, the sensibility of the design is questionable.

Coming myself from an technical background I know that raised temperature exposure to electronic devices can lead to malfunction and to deformation of the housing materials when exposed for too long and too high temperatures.

As solar panels need sun light to work 100% those cell-phones need to be placed in direct sunlight. Sure, solar panels will charge in bright room environment or on cloudy days but the efficiency and effectiveness of the solar panels go down to 20%.

Another factor is the battery itself: the best charging condition is by around 25 degree Celsius. Higher temperatures will shorten the batteries lifetime as the chemical reaction inside the battery cell will not work in higher temperature properly.

Inside pockets or bag especially during hot summer days the temperature is already exceeding this 25 degrees but now imagine the device is place in direct sunlight.

From my point of view, bags and other fashion accessories including clothing with integrated solar panels make much more sense as they will not only minimize the cellphones’ (or other portable devices) exposure to direct sun light = heat, but also gives additional protection against scratches and cell-phone snatchers.

Bags and clothing provide the solar panels a place where they feeling best: on the outside and in direct sunlight contact where they can harvest all the unlimited, environmental friendly energy.

I found a photo on Flickr from blogger Yuhui showing a very elegant looking Nokia concept of a solar charging phone pouch he has seen during his visit to the Nokia Open Lab 2008 event last month.

Although I couldn’t find more specific information about this solar power pouch, I still want to share it as I like the way how solar cells are used in this design – like gem stones. Solar gems sparkle and provide some (badly needed) power to cell phones, giving them a purpose compared to the glass stones big and small labels splash over bags and pouches.

We have seen solar charging phone pouches recently, they look OK but this one, if it ever comes to the market, is a must have for me.

Great news for environmental fashionistas: get one of the gorgeous Solar bags from Noon at a 15% discount.

From now until the end of September Noon Solar is offering all of their solar bags a 15% discount when using the coupon code: septembersale during checkout.

Noon has set a very high level or solar bags by not only using advanced technology for the solar energy converting past of their bags but also on the selection of materials and production process for Noon’s solar bags.

Noon Solar bags are made from biodegradable materials and the dying is done by hand with natural substances.

For the textures and patterns on their bags, Noon uses the ancient Japanese dying method, Shibori, making each bag unique.

The bags leather comes from Germany, tanned in similar ways people have been tanning leather hundreds of years ago.

The use of sustainable materials and production processes, combined with a solar energy converting system beautifully integrated into the design makes Noon Solar bags a unique, environmental conscious handbag choice for our gadget (over)loaded lifestyle.

Solar bag manufacturer Sakku from Switzerland has added a new model to their Solar bag range called ‘Buddy’.

This little sunshine Buddy comes in many rainbow colors to match the bright and sunny mood of summer time. As in their previous solar bags, Sakku uses again recycled materials for the bags, offering 100% environmentally sound power/fashion bags.

In their first models, Sakku used old sails from sailing boats to create the solar bags in the most environmental preserving way. The Solar Buddy uses the fabric of recycled sun umbrellas and sunshades which come in many colors and print pattern.

A very unique design twist, reviving ‘sun proven’ materials and giving them a second life, that’s what I would call ‘sustainability par excellence’. The use of those recycled fabrics not only helps to ease the load of our landfills, it also makes each Solar Buddy a unique bag as each bag is produced with slightly different parts of an old sun shade.

Check out all the different style variants of the Solar Buddy bag, an explosion of colors for this cuddly Buddy.

The Buddy is available in two variants: the ‘direct’ charges portable devices directly from the flexible solar panel and the ‘akku’ comes with an integrated rechargeable battery, storing the solar energy continuously.

Sakku has the Buddy available now on their Swiss site with a price range of between € 175.- ($274.68) for the direct model and € 245.- ($384.44) for the akku model. Sakku planes to bring the colorful Sun Buddy to their US online store as well.