YSL

Luxury fashion brand Yves Saint Laurent partners with Google on a smart backpack. ‬

The YSL Cit-E Backpack features a touch-sensitive shoulder strap that is connected to your smartphone. Powered by Google’s Project Jacquard fabric technology, you can control music, navigation, and notifications by brushing up or down on the strap, as well as double tapping, and using a cover gesture.

Google’s Advanced Technology & Projects (ATAP) group previously partnered with Levi’s on the Smart Trucker Jacket using the same technology. Like the Levi’s jacket, the YSL Cit-E Backpack features a removable tag that contains the battery and internal hardware. The backpack will be the first “Jacquard by Google” product offered outside of the United States.

Gestures to interact with your smartphone on the YSL Cit-E backpack shoulder strap

Designer and Director of Engineering at Google ATAP, Ivan Poupyrev recently gave a TED talk where he discussed integrating technology into everyday objects to make them more useful and fun. And now with the YSL collaboration, highly fashionable too.

You can pre-order the backpack from YSL (shipping by October 15) and purchase it through Rive Droite, an e-shop located in Paris and Los Angeles.

Read more about the future of wearables and connected clothing in Augmented Human: How Technology Is Shaping The New Reality.