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No need to unzip for your iPod

Zegna's new iPod jacket

Candace Lombardi
In a software-driven world, it's easy to forget about the nuts and bolts. Whether it's cars, robots, personal gadgetry or industrial machines, Candace Lombardi examines the moving parts that keep our world rotating. A journalist who divides her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lombardi has written about technology for the sites of The New York Times, CNET, USA Today, MSN, ZDNet, Silicon.com, and GameSpot. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET.
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Candace Lombardi

Form follows function in fashion, too, not just architecture. Or, more likely in this case, form follows the money that a function like this will rake in.

Designer extraordinaire Ermenegildo Zegna has announced the Zegna iJacket as part of its Spring 2007 ZegnaSport line. (The collection is not yet on the Zegna Web site.) The lightweight windbreaker, which will come in bomber or three-quarter length, has an inside breast pocket, connection for an iPod, and buttons on the left sleeve to let you control it without having to unzip the jacket.

The sleeve buttons feature play/pause, volume, off/on and backward/forward track control. The jacket, which can be washed like a regular windbreaker, is compatible with any iPod that has the docking connector, according to Zegna.

It solves both the control issue, and the fear of gadget theft when keeping the iPod in an easily accessible pocket.

While this may be the most fashionable we've seen, Zegna is not the first to come up with an iPod jacket. In July, several companies displayed "Wearable Technologies" at a trade show for sporting goods.

Anyone else thinking that a certain New York entrepreneur/music producer/2004 menswear designer of the year is kicking himself right now? Maybe he should have spent less time on the new 5th Avenue store and album.

(Photo: Zegna)