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“It doesn’t shock me in the slightest that more lifestyle and fashion brands are partnering with outdoor brands, especially in the ski and snowboard space,” says Arc’teryx Brand Manager for Australia and New Zealand, Hayden Stevens.
“One point that is pretty hard to ignore is the elite market in skiing. If you look at the cost of entry to actually ski, to get on the slopes, it’s insane. It stands to reason that the average consumer is going to be of a higher salary and is more likely to be in the market for that high-end gear that is also fashion-forward.”
Back in 2001, Karl Lagerfeld, a German fashion icon and former creative director of Chanel, debuted ski wear with the double "C" Chanel logo. Snow sports and high-end clothing are both aspirational, and ski culture has always had a sense of style—both on and off the slopes. It's easy to understand why.
According to Alexandra Bruce-Smith, Digital Managing Editor of the women's beauty and fashion magazine MARIE CLAIRE Australia, "Ski culture and luxury fashion have a long history."
When The North Face unveiled a winter collection with Italian fashion house Gucci in 2019, it served as the catalyst for the most recent wave. The designer collaboration elevated our pandemic-practical street attire to a whole new level, even though North Face puffers had long been the go-to choice for Australian city dwellers when the temperature dropped (for Queenslanders, that's anything less than 20 degrees Celsius). It was worn by Jared Leto, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Jennifer Lopez.
In 2021, design juggernaut Chloé joined forces with French brand Fusalp, which is known for developing the first technical stirrup pants for the French ski team in the 1960s. There are many more instances: Balmain, a French haute-couture brand, collaborated with Rossignol, a ski manufacturer, on a collection; Jil Sander, a German minimalist brand, collaborated with Arc'teryx; LoveShackFancy with Bogner; the renowned Colmar outerwear brand with Tokyo's White Mountaineering label; and POC and Dior worked together on a helmet and pair of goggles.
Aspen, a glitzy US ski resort, teamed up with Italian fashion house PRADA for a capsule collection for their own clothing line called ASPEN X while in the Colorado mountains. PRADA later cemented its snow brand by making a special snowboard for Julia Marino at the Beijing Olympics.
Skiwear lines are also available from the high-end labels Fendi, Louis Vuitton, Miu Miu, and Christian Dior. As do Coach, Michael Kors, and Isabel Marant. For those who prefer to flaunt their labels, Saint Laurent offers branded skis ($16,500) and a snowboard ($13,500).
The number of high-end designer companies entering the skiwear market has increased dramatically in recent years. They do this by collaborating with well-known outdoor performance companies and snow athletes to develop winter lines that are specifically designed for the snow.
