DEPARTURES ARCTIC SHEEN
DEPARTURES ARCTIC SHEEN 30 STYLE Baby, It’s Cold! Designers are refusing hibernation this winter, serving up luscious skiwear and piste-inspired looks with bold contours and vibrant colours. by Avril Groom Miu Miu’s padded sweatshirt, handcrocheted helmet and scarf and fake-fur moonboots, miumiu.com © MIU MIU
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: © DOLCE & GABBANA, ALESSANDRO LUCIONI, VALERIO MEZZANOTTI FOR MANY, A SOJOURN on the ski slopes of Courchevel or Aspen is a quintessential part of winter’s social ritual. The standard uniform used to be sportswear, super-warm and waterproof above all – but also fashionable enough to shine at sunny lunches on see-and-beseen Alpine terraces or while rubbing shoulders at the aprèsski bars. In the past few years, however, big-name outfitters have been putting fashion first, with results that are just as practical as they are eminently Instagrammable. This season, designers are taking another big (ski) jump: skiwear is not just fashionable, but the trend du jour, to wear anywhere you fancy, even in the office – if yours happens to be one where they keep the air-con going all winter. The imaginative films that replaced many a catwalk show at the peak of the Covid era have a lot to answer for. Miu Miu shot its version amid the Dolomites’ spectacular peaks, Worst-weather glamour, clockwise from left: Dolce & Gabbana’s padded, prowling feline, dolcegabbana.com Kenzo’s supercool neon hooded knit, kenzo.com Rick Owens’s caped street crusader, rickowens.com with padded, pastel jackets, jumpsuits and salopettes looking the business for sport, while similarly padded miniskirts, and even swimsuits, teamed with bright crocheted or neutral sheepskin jackets make for anytime weekend wear. In pairing salopettes with block-heeled sheepskin mules and discoworthy slip dresses with thigh-high yeti boots, Miu Miu makes the strongest case for skiwear both on and off the slopes. Meanwhile, Chanel, whose practical skiwear extends to double-C-embellished skis, took over iconic Left Bank boîte Castel to capture models arriving, shrugging off their easy tweed coats and emerging looking very latenight in sparkly Nordic knits, dungarees over sheer black lace or sequined body-con dresses with moonboots. These collections set the tone, but plenty of others have run with it. The oversized, padded jacket, which has its origins in anonymous streetwear, has been a leitmotif of non-gendered collections for several seasons now. Perhaps in response to the isolation much of the world has endured, it has now been grown by Raf Simons to cocoon proportions that, worn over equally oversized sweaters, could handle a 31 DEPARTURES
