This garment designed to cope with the very cold mountain people now walks the streets of cities as an essential classic. And, from Moncler to The North Face, is also available in a creative version.
by Maud Gabrielson
With its comfortable side and a sleeping bag, its fun and regressive name, the down jacket is today a familiar garment. Of those that we now meet every winter on every street corner, on the back of young girls, grandfathers and children. If it was long only confined to ski tracks and other winter sports – and therefore, as such, the preserve of specialized brands, Moncler, Fusalp, Pyrenex and others -, for a few seasons, it has been largely Imposed on the podiums of fall-winter collections, each designer going there from its creative interpretation, both in female and male lines.
“Sport has always irrigated fashion, we saw it with the growing influence of sportswear in the ready-to-wear collections. We first adopted the tracksuit then basketball, and, in the Fall-Winter Collections, parts usually reserved for winter sports and in particular the down jacket. This also responds to the influence of sport in our lifestyles, “explains Thomas Zylberman, fashion expert within the Trends Office CARLIN INTERNATIONAL.
On the catwalks, we remember the imposing red model switched to the shoulders seen during the first collection of Demna at Balenciaga, in March 2016. This season, we A Kimono-style view in Dior Femme, in a laneed skin version on a men’s model at Jacquemus, swollen with a block at Loewe or in a glossy version with a corset at Versace.
“The down jacket perfectly embodies the” extra wide “trend, this imposing silhouette, with accentuated volumes and which is very popular today. It is clearly a podium thing that is not so obvious to reproduce on a daily basis, But the down jacket is one of the rare pieces that allow it easily, and admits colors or metallic effects, “comments Thomas Zylberman.
How is the down jacket gradually descended from the mountain to land in the street and in our wardrobes? The Japanese Uniqlo notably participated in its democratization, with its ultra -fine models of 180 grams at 49.90 euros, which roll in a pouch to be carried everywhere. In 2013, one of them offered the honors of the Time Magazine “one” with this hook: “Can this jacket save Japan?”, As the brand broke sales records.
A technical challenge
Also practical and fashion is today, the down jacket is nonetheless a technical challenge. “Comfort and functionality are the first criteria to take into account, explains Eran Elfassy, founder and artistic director of the Canadian brand Mackage, who has made the outdoor clothing his specialty. To what is obviously added: he The down jacket must be handy so light, waterproof and it resists the test of wind and cold. “The tissues, developed internally, are therefore light, breathable, keep heat and are obviously waterproof: recycled nylon, polyamide, feathers of geese …
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