Moncler turns archive jackets into full wardrobe with Re/Icons expansion
Moncler is turning four of its archive down jackets into a complete wardrobe.
The Italian outerwear house is expanding Re/Icons, its project built around historic designs, with a full ready-to-wear collection, clothes made in standard sizes to wear straight off the rail. It is the first time the initiative, introduced in 2023, has stretched beyond outerwear, according to WWD.
The focus is the Karakorum, Verone, Himalaya and Tibb jackets. Each carries its own history. Moncler, founded in 1952 in Monestier-de-Clermont, created the Karakorum in 1954 to equip Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli for the Italian expedition that made the first successful ascent of K2.
The Verone arrived in the 1980s and was taken up by Milan's Paninari youth movement. The short Himalaya down jacket debuted in 2009 and later developed into the Maya, now one of the brand's best-known shapes.
The new versions stay close to the originals but work them in camaieu, a technique that layers one colour in different tones and finishes. Inside each jacket is a label printed with Vittorio Sella's photograph of K2, taken in June 1909. Metal logos fixed to the pockets take their cue from old alpine souvenir pins.
This time the jackets do not stand alone. The collection adds windbreakers, T-shirts, trousers and skirts to make full looks. Accessories complete the range: beanies and balaclavas, silk-twill foulards, and sunglasses in titanium and leather shaped after vintage climbing goggles.
What makes this stand out is how much backstory is sewn in. The mountaineering references sit next to street references. The result reads as winter kit and city clothing at once.
The collection will be previewed on Monday and Tuesday during Paris Fashion Week in Il Rifugio, a renovated private space inside Moncler's Champs-Elysees store. It will prelaunch exclusively at that store on Thursday, followed by a pop-up at Isetan in Tokyo and a prelaunch at the Fifth Avenue flagship in New York on Oct. 14.
Prices run from EUR 990 to EUR 2,400. The global launch follows on Oct. 15 in selected Moncler stores and on the brand's online site.
