PapierblogDigital.Fashion

Let’s just jump right in. About a year ago designer Anya Hindmarch came up with the I’m Not a Plastic Bag fashion accessory and it sold in ridiculous amounts. The jury was out on whether it was actually selling because people liked the concept or because an Anya Hindmarch bag was selling for $15. The concept was simple: instead of harming the environment and dolphins with bags that eventually make their way out to sea and never biodegrade, have the fashion public re-use their bags. It was genius in the making until someone started making fun of the whole pretentious aspect of the I’m not a Plastic Bag craze. Fast forward a year and someone has come up with something arguably more green on the green scale of environmentally green.

Joe Hyneck, a PhD student of mechanical engineering at Iowa State Univeristy has created a solar handbag that charges cell phones and iPods. Here’s the Papierblog non-scientific version of how the bag works: apparently Hyneck to thin-film solar photovoltaic cells and embedded them into the fabric of the handbag. When exposed to the sun,items within the bag start charging. The efficiency in charging probably won’t match just plugging the cell phone into the wall, but Hyneck is refining the process. He is temporarily calling the item the “Power Purse”. Remember he’s a Mechanical Engineering student in Iowa, the Madison avenue marketering folks have not gotten their grubby little hands on him yet.

Pricepoints start at $300, but again, Madison Avenue will get to him and knock some Hermes style sense into him.

online: Solar Purse That Charges a Cell Phone