How about a solar powered dress made of comfortable cotton?

High tech fabrics are moving from science fiction to reality.  It won’t be long before you can rest your head on a pillow to monitor your brain waves, wear a t-shirt that can keep track of your heart rate, or even charge your cell phone with a solar powered dress.  And, no… we are not talking solar powered dressing like the teeny, tiny item shown to the left (made up of nearly 500 circuit boards!)

100% cotton threads that have the ability to conduct electric current have been  developed in the Fiber Science and Apparel Design laboratory.  Although the material is soft and flexible, it has the conduction power of a metal wire.  Unbelievably, a knot in the specially-treated solar thread can complete a circuit.

If you think it sounds too far-fetched, think again.  A solar powered dress created using the high tech fabric will be featured this Saturday, March 13 at the annual Cornell Design League Fashion Show!

The technology involves coating cotton fibers with electrically conductive nanoparticles.   Nanotechnology sounds pretty geeky, but the end result is not only beautiful, but comfortable and practical.

Juan Hinestroza, assistant professor of Fiber Science and Apparel Design, who worked with a team of colleagues to develop the technique sees great promise in solar powered dressing:

“We can definitively have sections of a traditional cotton fabric becoming conductive, hence a great myriad of applications can be achieved.  The technology developed by us and our collaborators allows cotton to remain flexible, light and comfortable while being electronically conductive.  Previous technologies have achieved conductivity but the resulting fiber becomes rigid and heavy. Our new techniques make our yarns friendly to further processing such as weaving, sewing and knitting.”

The solar powered dress that will be on the catwalk this Saturday uses flexible solar cells that can power electronics from a USB charger in the waist of the garment.  Like a solar handbag or backpack, you could power an MP3 player, cell phone or camera on the fly.

Can you imagine solar powered dressing to re-charge your life?