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Gold chain link water bottle holder worn by the princesses of Beverly Hills Clueless. Miuccia Prada, taking a bow after the fashion show at Teva Shoes. A tent adorned with interlocking G’s is yours at Gucci dot com for just $3,500!
For decades, high-fashion designers have sent their models down the runway in goofy drag, sometimes in cute items (Gucci and The North Face’s retro-floral ski jackets), sometimes silly (Proenza Schouler’s climbing rope-and-three-figure carabiner jewelry), and some Time’s So Beautifully Stupid (Jacques 2021 “La Montagne” collection, featuring tiny, striped spandex shorts for men paired with a tennis ball green vest, blue oxfords, and hiking boots).
For serious mountain climbers or backpackers, utility, technical clothing that incorporates “outdoor fashion” means they stay dry, warm and blister-free on their adventures. For other consumers, these clothes telegraph luxury, artistry and sexiness.
“Fashion has always had an interest in getting into outdoor gear,” says Jessica Glascock, an assistant professor at Parsons School of Design and the author of several books on fashion and culture. “It’s really about recognizing some outdoor endeavors as sports activities as recreational activities and looking at them as status activities. Fashion often has a desire to connect to the time and place of adventure.
The first thing that comes to mind for Glasscock is the outdoor high fashion design called safari clothing. Popular in the mid-20th century, the lightweight jacket and trouser combination was based on European military uniforms worn by colonial British and German soldiers in warm climates in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Usually made of lightweight fabric and featuring epaulets and pockets on the front, the mount was sometimes accompanied by a rifle and pit helmet. Well-to-do Europeans began wearing “safari” clothing on trips to African countries, and the outfit became synonymous with famous adventurers, including Ernest Hemingway.
“The idea of taking a fabric associated with a strong exterior and using that to create something precious… it’s kind of the bread and butter of fashion.”
A generation later, Glasscock updated the safari outfit for women. In the year Yves Saint Laurent’s famous painting from 1969 shows the French designer flanked by very similar girls: women Bette Catroux and Lolou de la Falaise, all three wearing sensual versions of khaki dresses. Betty accessorized her lace-up safari mini dress with a silk scarf and belt hanging over her tiny hips and patey leather thigh-high boots. These clothes are not for camping.
“Fashion likes contrasts, and it likes tension, and part of that comes out of taking cues and putting them on impossible people or in impossible places,” says Robin Givhan, the subject’s top critic. The Washington Post. “And taking a fabric that’s associated with a tough exterior and using it to create something expensive… is kind of the bread and butter of fashion.”
Versions of the safari jacket are still popular on the runway and in the mall, though politically savvy brands are leaning away from the garment’s colonial roots, calling items “field jackets” and pairing them with jeans instead of baseball caps.
Other iterations of outside-influenced fashion are less obvious. One such example of ethnography is Prada’s use of nylon – a durable and non-sexy fabric that the outdoor industry often uses for everything from shorts to tote bags – covetable handbags and To make bags, all complete with the measuring triangle of the house. Logo
“We take this concept of utility, usefulness, practicality, and the privilege of being able to get in and out in a certain way,” Glascock said. But we make the product and make it more appealing to an audience that engages with that lifestyle but also wants to talk about themselves as a fashion label person.
Do people wear these items to camp? It’s hard to say, says Givhan. Maybe in Aspen?
Recently, high-end fashion houses, including Jil Sander, have made the influence of outdoor recreation more evident by partnering with brands such as Arctrix, said Adrien Verin, sports and lifestyle specialist at Carlin Creative, a France-based trend bureau.
The pairing makes sense because luxury brands take more inspiration from streetwear, he says. The line between fancier clothes and outdoor wear is blurring, with fashionable young people pairing Patagonia or Arcteryx with Louis Vuitton or Balenciaga.
“People who wore outerwear or accessories were like some nerds, like unfashionable people,” he says (his French accent makes it sound less harsh). But “nowadays, many people use clothes that you can wear in the city, you can wear at home, you can wear outside. Something very modular.
Perhaps the most noteworthy partnership is Gucci’s collaboration with North Face. The brands’ first collection (debuted in late 2020) was so successful that the two released a second in late 2021. In promotional pictures for the line (prices average in the four figures), a model in a pink ski jacket and corset walks on loose gravel by an Icelandic river, a white lily in one hand, a $3,000 black leather Jackie handbag in the other.
Do people wear these items to camp? It’s hard to say, says Givhan. Maybe in Aspen? “I think every time I’m on the subway and I see a guy with some kind of industrial sports bag and a big metal water bottle,” she said. “I’m right. Where are you going?”
Some people lashed out at Gucci and Jil Sander’s associates. One online commenter called an oversized Gucci mud-brown puffy jacket an “Uncle Buck special,” and some (correctly) pointed out that a knee-length Jil Sander ski jacket was in fact, thanks to its longer length.
“You can’t have a mountain backdrop and not have the subject in the photo look stunningly beautiful.”
But the timing of the collaboration makes sense, Vereen says. The two high-profile partnerships began nearly a year after Covid-19 brought much of the world to a standstill. After all, during a pandemic, health and freedom can be considered the ultimate luxury.
“I think the new luxury is the ability to go outside and move around in a safe environment,” he said. “During the lockdown, many people dreamed of going to the mountains or the great outdoors.”
Abigail Tananbaum, founder and creator of outdoor gear brand MATEK, which makes comfortable base layers and balaclavas for men, women and children, says the aesthetic telegraphs not just fun, but skill and knowledge.
And, anyone who has ever admired the amazing way a lightweight rain jacket folds into a small backpack, or how a hiking boot can keep snow drifts from soaking woolen socks, knows… outdoor gear is pretty cool. “That’s why I wanted to make a turtleneck that shouldn’t be in my ski closet, it could be in my regular closet,” she said. “‘I’m definitely inspired by both. [fashion and function], but definitely the function of external gear is very important. I think it’s a good influence on fashion, when it’s a little more practical.
According to Tananbaum, natural beauty is automatically associated with outdoor clothing. When someone puts on a ski jacket, they can easily picture themselves on a mountain ski, ready to run down a dark pine covered hill, even when traveling on a train. “You can’t have a mountain backdrop and not have the subject in the photo look incredibly beautiful,” she said. “I don’t even know if I answered your question, sorry! I’m in Colorado and I’m a little nervous looking at Mt.
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