Luxury skiwear storms the slopes

Earlier this month, a dozen skiers, all geared up in Giorgio Armani Neve attire, shot down the slope of Piz Nair overlooking St Moritz, before stopping for an outdoor lunch at -8C at Alpina Hütte. The 120-year-old mountain hut had also been branded by the Italian designer for the season. Though the brand is the technical outfitter of the Italian Winter Sports Federation, this group were not athletes but Armani guests, there to attend the presentation of the house’s latest high-jewellery launch. 

Giorgio Armani Neve was first launched in the ’90s to offer a chic alternative to the hyper-coloured skiwear of that decade. Speaking at the event, the 89-year-old designer said that Neve was inspired by his trips to St Moritz and designed “for those who want to pursue winter sports in style”. 

We are celebrating high performance and high design at high altitude

Couturiers have always dressed the ski set. Fashion and the slopes coalesced after the second world war via Emilio Pucci, who designed flamboyant one-piece ski suits that he, an Olympic skier in the 1930s, and his friends could wear; Prada and Chanel launched their winter-sports collection in 1997 and 2000 respectively. Last winter was the busiest ever for US ski resorts, according to NSAA, the National Ski Areas Association, and luxury labels have been quick to court the market for the slopes.

“We’re still going through a phase where consumers crave holidays. This has increasingly led luxury brands to showcase their products in high-end destinations,” says Luca Solca, a senior research analyst at Bernstein. In Aspen, a pop-up opened last week by Revolve Group will stock brands like Balenciaga, Burberry, Ferragamo and Rabanne; it will join established Ralph Lauren and Brunello Cucinelli stores in the Colorado resort town. One of the objectives for all these brands “is to add another product segment to the luxury market”, says Solca, who cites fashion’s rapid expansion into sneakers as a precedent. “The technical specifications of the gear give the ski and après-ski collections an aura of credibility.”

Louis Vuitton Stripes puffer jacket, £5,450

Moncler ski suit, £1,320

Chanel short boots, £1,580

Dior x Descente x Peter Doig quilted down ski jacket, £4,400

This year, Pucci has partnered with French ski-attire maker Fusalp (for a second time) to create a capsule ski collection, combining the Italian brand’s wilted Technicolor prints with insulating gear (their maximalist Freezy Boots cost from £890). Louis Vuitton’s newest LV Ski collection includes performance pieces such as puffer jackets (€5,800) and down jackets (from €3,500). Meanwhile, Kim Jones has launched another collaboration with British artist Peter Doig, for Dior’s Men’s Ski 2024. Some down jackets and ski pants are made in partnership with ski-attire maker Descente, other pieces feature Doig’s designs (see the Dior x Descente x Peter Doig quilted down jacket, £4,400).

In Gstaad, Chanel has opened a pop-up that will feature everything from bags, watches and jewellery to the Coco Neige line. The collection, a nod to Coco Chanel’s passion for winter sports, features both high-tech ski attire and garments for the après ski.

Yet the pop-up in Gstaad is an outlier: since the 1960s St Moritz has been the main hub for luxury ski apparel. In 2015, 80 per cent of the region’s 188,000 residents were employed in tourism, with the sector making up 68 per cent of the economy worth SFr16.4bn (about £14.9bn). And it’s becoming ever more popular: over the first six months of 2023, overall overnight stays by foreign travellers in Switzerland were up 33 per cent year on year. Wealthy Italians have long gone to St Moritz at the weekend; Giorgio Armani, Miuccia Prada and Moncler CEO Remo Ruffini are among the homeowners in Engadin. Says Armani: “I converted a typical Engadin house into a winter retreat, Armani-style”.

This month, Moncler inaugurated the first ever flagship store of its Grenoble line — named after the city that hosted the 1968 Winter Olympics — in St Moritz, while Zegna has opened a boutique on Via Serlas selling a version of its triple-stitch shoe, the Vetta, dedicated to the mountains of Engadin. Solca says the new openings in St Moritz and Gstaad, as well as other initiatives such as Range Rover’s sponsorship of a bar and events space in the Italian resort of Courmayeur, represent an attempt by luxury brands to “target potential new clients and increase their visibility … it works”.

Ruffini says the new Moncler store is like going back to “our roots to celebrate a mission for high performance and high design at high altitude”. The down-filled jackets and ski pants of Grenoble’s performance segment are designed for professional and expert skiers (Men’s Pramint ski jacket, €1,600; women’s jumpsuit, €1,500).

The Neve collection, meanwhile, is directed towards a far more relaxed class of clientele. It was presented with luxuriant faux-fur blankets, flasks of warm apple cider, and a chalet dinner overlooking the town’s frozen lake. Women wore pleated jackets, knitted blousons and mini shearlings; the men wore cashmere wraparound capes. It was, observed one influencer in attendance, the very picture postcard of an Alpine winter scene. Sleigh bells tinkled in tandem with the till sales. “Here,” said Armani, “there is a very receptive clientele.”