
Though it was only the second showing of Moncler Gamme Bleu, the heritage French skiwear label’s high fashion, conceptual arm, it was one that everyone will remember for some time. Creative Director Thom Browne, together with producer Etienne Russo and Moncler proprietor Remo Ruffini created a spectacle that united the fashion crowd in admiration and applause.
In the spectator sport that is fashion, the clothes make or break the label, but you give them a real boost with a show that leaves the crowd dazzled. Moncler knows it. The Franco-Italian label’s presentation of its new Grenoble line at Chelsea Piers’ waterfront golf club was a stunner. On the driving range, a three-story scaffold held the puffer-swaddled models in a still, faintly military formation. Bach, Bellini, and Puccini swelled from below, and the editors gawped from the club’s covered terraces, where on normal days, the linksmen would be thwacking balls.
The effect, as snow began to lightly fall, was nothing short of operatic (though the Moncler-branded thermoses of spiced wine and hot punch may have contributed to the heady mood). And the clothes? Oh, they were very nice, at least as far as I could see from a distance. Grenoble—named for the Alpine town where the label was founded—aims to reclaim the brand’s skiing heritage and promises that its collections can stand up to the slopes. But style still counts, too. In-for-a-penny, in-for-a-pounders can dive into a full-body puffer suit (bet the model in that one on this cold evening was thanking his lucky stars).
There were a variety of jackets in technical nylon, Shetland wool, and insulated down, and a few looks even saw the return of that mid-century bit of politesse, the ski skirt for ladies.
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