How the outdoor environment affects high fashion

A gold chain water bottle holder worn by the princesses of Beverly Hills Ignorant. Miuccia Prada, taking a bow after a Teva sandal show. A tent embellished with interlocking Gs, yours for just $3,500 at Gucci dot com!

For decades, haute couture designers have dressed their models in whimsical drag and sent them down the runways, wearing items that are sometimes gorgeous (Gucci’s and The North Face’s floral ski jackets), sometimes silly (the climbing rope from Proenza Schouler-and- carabiner jewelry retailing for three figures) and sometimes downright silly (Jacquemus’ 2021 “La Montagne” collection, which paired men’s stretchy mini-striped shorts with a green vest with tennis ball, blue oxford and hiking boots).

For serious hikers or backpackers, utilitarian, technical clothing that embraces “outdoor fashion” means they’ll stay dry, warm and blister-free on their adventures. For other consumers, these clothes telegraph luxury, art and sexiness.

“Fashion has always had an interest in diving into the outdoors,” said Jessica Glasscock, an adjunct professor at Parsons School of Design and the author of several books on fashion and culture. “It is really the recognition of certain outdoor endeavors as acts of leisure as much as acts of sport, and therefore as a kind of status activity. Fashion is usually interested in incorporating the status of having time and opportunity for adventure.”

The first high-fashion design that comes to mind for Glasscock is the so-called safari suit. The lightweight jacket and trouser combination that became popular in the mid-20th century was based on European military uniforms worn by British and German troops colonizing warm climates in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Usually made in light fabric and with hoods and pockets along the front, the cap was sometimes equipped with a rifle and a spiked helmet. Wealthy Europeans began wearing suits on “safari” trips to African countries, and the outfit became synonymous with famous gentlemen adventurers, including Ernest Hemingway.

A generation later, Glasscock said, the safari suit was updated for women. A famous photo of Yves St. Laurent from 1969 shows the French designer surrounded by very sharp-looking girls Betty Catroux and Loulou de la Falaise, all three wearing sexy versions of khaki suits. Betty pairs her lace-up safari minidress with a silk scarf and belt draped across her petite hips and thigh-high pirate leather boots. These clothes are not for camping.

“Fashion loves contradictions and it loves tension, and part of that comes from taking the signifiers of a thing and putting them on impossible people or in impossible places,” said Robin Givhan, senior critic for Washington Post. “And so the idea of ​​taking a fabric that’s associated with rough craftsmanship in nature, and using it to create something precious… is kind of the bread and butter of fashion.”

Versions of the safari jacket are still popular on the runway and in malls, although politically conscious brands have veered from the garment’s colonial roots by calling the items “field jackets” and pairing them with jeans instead of helmets.

Other iterations of foreign-influenced fashion are not so clear-cut. One of the most enduring examples of the aesthetic is Prada’s use of nylon—a durable, unsexy fabric that the outdoor industry often uses for everything from shorts to pencil bags—to make handbags and enviable backpacks, all equipped with the house’s signature triangle. logo.

“We’re going to take this concept that has to do with utility, with utility, with practicality, also with this kind of privilege of being able to get out and about in a certain way,” Glasscock said. “But we’re going to make it a product and make it more appealing to an audience that might be engaged with that lifestyle but also wants to talk about themselves as a fashion label person.”

Recently, high fashion houses including Jil Sander have made the influence of outdoor recreation even more evident by collaborating with brands such as Arc’teryx, said Adrian Verin, a sports and lifestyle expert at Carlin Creative , a trendy office based in France.

The merger makes sense as luxury brands take more inspiration from streetwear, he said. The lines between finer clothes and outerwear are blurring as young fashionistas pair Patagonia or Arc’teryx with pieces from Louis Vuitton or Balenciaga.

“People who wore clothes or accessories in nature were like some fools, just people who don’t look stylish,” he said (his French accent made this sound less harsh). But “a lot of people now use clothes that you can wear around town, that you can wear at home, that you can wear outside. Something really modular.”

Perhaps the partnership that has attracted the most attention is Gucci’s collaboration with The North Face. The brand’s first collection (debuted in late 2020), was so successful that the two released a second in late 2021. In promotional photos for the line (prices average in the mid-four figures), a model wearing in a pink ski jacket and corset climbs loose gravel on the bank of an Icelandic river, white lilies in one hand, a $3,000 black leather Jackie bag in the other.

Do people wear these things to camp? It’s hard to say, says Givhan. Maybe in Aspen? “I think every time I’m on the subway and I see someone with a backpack with some kind of industrial sports bag and a big metal water bottle,” she said. “I’m like, where are you going?”

Some people savaged the Gucci and Jil Sander collaboration. One online commenter called an oversized puffy Gucci jacket in mud brown “Uncle Buck’s special,” and some (rightly) pointed out that a knee-length Jil Sander ski jacket wasn’t really all that practical for skiing, in fact, thanks to its long length.

But the timing of the collaborations makes sense, said Verin. The two high-profile partnerships began about a year after COVID-19 brought much of the world to the country. After all, during a pandemic, health and freedom can be considered the ultimate luxury.

“I think the new luxury is being able to go out and move around in an environment that’s safe,” he said. “During the lockdown, many people dreamed of going to the mountains or getting out into nature.”

Abigail Tananbeaum, founder and creator of outdoor gear brand MATEK, which makes cozy base layers and hoodies for men, women and kids, said the aesthetic telegraphs not just leisure, but also skill and expertise.

And, as anyone who has admired the elegant way a lightweight rain jacket folds into a small bag knows, or marveled at how a hiking boot keeps an icy stream from soaking woolen socks… gear the exteriors are simply superb. “That’s why I wanted to make a turtleneck that doesn’t have to stay in my ski gear closet, but can be in my normal closet,” she said. “I’m definitely inspired by both [fashion and function], but obviously the function of external devices is the most important. I think it’s almost a good influence on fashion, when it’s becoming a bit more functional.”

The beauty of nature is automatically grafted onto outerwear by association, Tananbeaum said. When someone puts on a ski jacket, even when just traveling by train, they can imagine themselves at the top of a mountain ski lift, ready to race down a hill covered in fresh snow and lush dark firs. “You can’t have a mountain background and not have the subject look super stylish,” she said. “I don’t even know if I answered your question, sorry! I’m just in Colorado looking at a mountain, so I’m a little confused.”