Lucie and Luke Meier, the chief designers at Jil Sander, had already talked for a good half hour about their relationship to practical shoes in an interview with our Sunday newspaper almost a year ago. It was about their collaboration with Birkenstock for the summer, about functionality and being outdoors, as towards the end the couple realized that in the future they would also be able to withstand harsh climatic conditions with their fashion. Your next cooperation partner is called Arc’teryx. Some may still stumble across this brand name with an apostrophe, but the important thing is that people who like to go to the mountains often wear the Canadian brand’s softshell jackets in the city too. The company has just developed a new avalanche airbag system.
Now, practical shoes and rain jackets are not new to luxury fashion. It is no longer only at home in haute couture salons such as that of Coco Chanel with its magnificent mirror staircase, which once brought revolutionary designs from fashion heaven down to earth. Even today, when Jil Sander is asked for a photo of herself, she prefers to show an older Peter Lindbergh photo, the wind blowing in her hair, and she keeps her cashmere coat closed.
But this is still a cashmere coat and not, for example, a glacier-ready, waterproof unisex snowsuit with breathable Gore-Tex features like the ones that today’s Jil Sander creative directors are designing for Arc’teryx to have. Or about thermo-regulating jackets and hiking boots that are more than just Luis Trenker quotes, like the ones Gucci and The North Face have been launching together since last year and are now already in a second collection.
A collaborative design by Gucci and The North Face
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Image: Gucci
Of course there are still spots untouched by fashion: Deuter, for example. Or Schöffel. But this list is getting shorter. And the direction is clear: the alpine outfitter Salomon and the conceptual Parisian fashion brand Comme des Garçons, Jack Wolfskin and the Berlin label GmbH. main thing out.
Brands in the fresh air
The style has had a name for five years, it’s called Gorpcore. In the United States, gorp means trail mix, which is nutritious and convenient when you’re stuck somewhere between camping in the woods and hiking to the top. Aesthetically, this type of fashion is to be found there, geographically it has been conquering the urban environment for several years. The trend has been around for a long time, luxury fashion is still quite new. For a long time, despite all the sturdy designer corduroy vests, they were two different worlds: luxury fashion should above all look good, outdoor clothing should make technical sense. The form against the life-saving function. Milan vs Montafon.
Only: What did the city have to offer in the harder months of the pandemic when restaurants, bars, hotels and shops were closed there? Instead, desperate mayors of snow-covered villages in Germany appealed to tourists not to come. There was talk of exodus from the city and happiness in the country. Suddenly bicycles were a rare commodity. Many fashion companies reported slumps in sales, many outdoor companies did brilliantly. To stay with the Arc’teryx example: 15 percent growth and 21 new stores in 2021.