Well, you wouldn't see them if they're covered over

I think the problem with the jackets' panels was they were so obviously tacked on - I was surprised at how cack-handed the result was - the lapels partially covered them anyway. The team may have been expecting panels that looked more like a fabric finish or weren't as stiff as the ones used in the prototype.

If the women had focused on having the jacket either just warm its user, just charge up phones or just have an illuminated collar, then the designers may have had enough time to do a better job of integrating the solar panels with the rest of the jacket. As it was though, the priority was always going to be getting everything in the jacket working properly, with appearance an afterthought.

The women were lucky that they didn't have to actually pay the designers for their work; the overtime fees would have been a killer.

^^ Not sure how much work was involved. Tack on a couple of solar panels, run the output to a battery, run a charging point from that, add a warming pad and sew in a few led strips. I assume the jacket was "off the peg". If not that probably took the most time to run up.