When fashion meets sport, you get surprising results. Just take a look at the ski wear collections making their debut on the slopes this new year.
Colorful and sometimes eccentric down jackets, ski suits and a vast array of accessories – including helmets, sunglasses, ski and après-ski boots – are increasingly designed to suit the style of men and women who love to dress up even when it comes to high tech garments. Forget about awkward and heavy garments, rough and bulky fabrics. The new pieces for skiing, sunbathing at high altitudes, skating, having lunch at a lodge or shopping in the starry mountain resorts are beautiful and comfortable.
For example: Woolrich and Pespow have partnered to create a collection of outerwear and dungarees in very high performance (Techno Jacquard and Techno Softshell); a beautiful combination of aesthetics, performance and protection without compromise, even for those who venture no further than the city park. Even traditional fashion brands have sought to replicate this mantra by pursuing virtuous collaborations with typically sports brands.
Pucci teamed up with French brand Fusalp – specialized in high tech clothing since 1952 – to create a capsule designed for skiing and leisure that reinterprets the marble patterns of the Florence-based brand founded by the creative Marquis Emilio – but now part of the Kering group – with new shades ranging from multicolor and black to tones of ice blue. The Fusalp ski suit, with violet details, transposes Pucci's vision into a high-performance garment.
The colorful experiments also include Vault – the Gucci concept store for synergies between different brands – which presents a selection of eight ski-inspired collections. Bringing together a heterogeneous mix of voices, from classic sportswear brands to emerging designers, the eight capsules thus create a collection that is as perfect on snowy peaks as it is on the city streets.
Footwear, accessories, jewelry... all selected for their creativity and continued commitment to creating handcrafted products. HEAD with its fun selection of sportswear that plays with the brand name. Swedish brand Yniq with brightly-colored ski goggles.
Moon Boot and its iconic après-ski footwear inspired by the moon landing. But also elegant knitwear produced in the heart of Los Angeles by The Elder Statesman. And while Sea plays with vintage-inspired details and high-tech fabrics to create feminine pieces with enhanced alpine patterns, the London-based jewelry designer Bleue Burnham creates cloud-inspired designs with SkyDiamond, made from atmospheric carbon. The Italian jeweler Panconesi presents iconic models in fluorescent enamel and rhinestones. Finally, Gui Rosa returns with new punk-inspired crocheted accessories.
High tech materials and geometric patterns are instead the main features in the Giorgio Armani Neve Autumn-Winter 2022/2023 collection, which showed in December in St Moritz in front of the Olympia Stadium, in collaboration with the Swiss Tourist Board and attended by the designer.
And what can we say about the DiorAlps capsule designed by Maria Grazie Chiuri for Dior? A revolutionary new wardrobe, reinvented according to season and inspiration. Ski suits, down jackets and matching trousers – made in a special water-repellent fabric – are embellished with a revisitation of Christian Dior's lucky star in a captivating gold, or in the iconic Dior houndstooth.