True celebrity is being able to spark a trend with a simple fashion choice. Raekwon’s Ralph Lauren Snow Beach jacket. Madonna’s Jean Paul Gaultier bra. Kurt Cobain’s fuzzy cardigan. Beyoncé’s everything.
Leave it to Toronto rapper Drake to dance around a James Turrell-inspired lightshow in a puffy red coat in his Hotline Bling music video, thus causing hip-hop fans the continent over to scramble for the nearest Canada Goose-like jacket. But the red coat in question is by French-Italian luxury outerwear brand Moncler. And while Drake certainly offers a nice dose of it-item relevance, this company has deep roots, and historic significance.
Founded in 1952 in France, the now-Italy-based company combines extreme outerwear with technological advancement and classic style—it’s high-fashion mountaineering. Indeed, Moncler began as a mountaineering outfitters company in the mountain village of Monestier de Clermont. The brand’s first down jacket, a version of which Drake salsa dances solo in for Hotline Bling, came two years later and quickly grew into a sensation. In 1968, Moncler was the official supplier for the French Olympic skiing team; fast-forward to late 2015, and the brand opened its first Vancouver boutique—the second stand-alone store in all of Canada.
Celebrated with a robust party put on by Vancouver lavish coordinators Countdown Events, the new West Coast Moncler boutique brings a little European outdoor sport mystique to Thurlow Street. Sleek window and in-store displays promote the brand’s signature array of luxurious high-performance wear: think soft puffy coats, fur collars, and dark, moody tones with articulate pops of red. It is easy to imagine one’s rosy-cheeked self in a Moncler coat roaming the French Alps, or perhaps skipping straight to après.
Photos courtesy of Moncler.
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