(Bloomberg Businessweek) -- For his spring/summer 2018 collection for the French luxury label Lanvin, designer Lucas Ossendrijver blended his signature relaxed high fashion with items more typically seen on mountainsides: oversize utility shorts with cargo pockets and bungee cord fastenings, hiking pants tricked out with zippers and snaps, fleece jackets, sporty nylon anoraks, and garish, performance-inspired sneakers.
“Personally I like the idea of outdoors but just as an abstract fantasy to start designing,” Ossendrijver says. “I’m not at all into camping or hiking.” Instead, his idea was to create “hybrid” pieces that integrate classic suiting ideas such as a tailored blazer and matching pants with activewear.
“The whole collection was based on recognizable, easy-to-understand items from a man’s wardrobe and how to transform them into something new,” he says. “I tried to elevate those items in terms of fashion by changing materials and techniques.”
Meanwhile, outdoor brand North Face has appeared in recent years in the collections of high-end designers, including Junya Watanabe, Sacai, and buzzy streetwear maker Supreme, which just released a metallic North Face parka. Similarly, Columbia, known for its hard-working sportswear, is teaming up with cool-kid labels Kith and Opening Ceremony. In other words, whether you’re planning on hiking this season, expect to at least look like you are.
“There is a very important conversation about authenticity going on, and those heritage outdoors brands are the epitome of authentic,” says Michael Fisher, vice president and creative director for menswear at the trend forecasting firm Fashion Snoops. “They became popular not because of trends but because of how functional and reliable their clothing was over the years. When consumers are being encouraged to buy better and buy less, these brands deserve a seat at the table.”
Fisher says his team has seen a big-picture movement from consumers to embrace nature, brought on by a variety of factors.
“Topics like climate change, the current administration’s change in policy toward protected spaces, and even ecotourism have all driven the conversation when it comes to awareness and appreciation for the great outdoors.” As a result, he adds, items that are “technical” and “cozy” have been seeing higher sales.
Sportswear as a category, says Lorna Hennelly of research firm Euromonitor International, is predicted to grow 4.2 percent globally by 2022 (compared with 1.9 percent for other apparel and 2.8 percent for other footwear).
“It’s really sportswear driving the market,” she says. For example, VF Corp.—which counts North Face, Timberland, and Vans among its “outdoor and action sports” brands—reported a 20 percent revenue increase in 2017, to $3.6 billion.
Like Fisher, Euromonitor notes subtle political implications at play: Being associated with these outdoor brands is an implicit endorsement of environmental causes. (If that sounds far-fetched, consider the vocal pro-environmental stances that Patagonia Inc. and Recreational Equipment Inc. have taken.)
With all of this at work, it’s easy to see why these outdoorsy influences were visible in the high-end collections of Gucci, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Valentino, and, of course, Lanvin.
“I feel it’s my role as a designer to push fashion further but to still create a wearable product,” Ossendrijver says. A pair of his cargo pants is aesthetically edgy—with extra zippers and rivets—but also practical, with a variety of deep pockets.
“As we move forward, I’d expect even more surprising inclusions of technology into these natural fabrics and surfaces,” Fisher says. “I see the future actually not looking that futuristic at all but being very much connected to the best parts of the past, with sensory experiences driving the trend.”
PATAGONIA’S POLITICS
In December 2017 the Trump administration announced it would dramatically roll back environmental protections on 2 million acres of federally protected land in Utah. That day, Patagonia—a company that gives 1 percent of sales to support green causes, among other activist efforts—added to its home page, “The President Stole Your Land.” In the following 24-hour period, the brand’s sales rose 600 percent. Subsequently, the company filed a lawsuit against the administration, alongside several American Indian tribes. Today, the same words still greet visitors at patagonia.com.
To contact the author of this story: Max Berlinger in Washington at max.berlinger@mac.com.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Justin Ocean at jocean1@bloomberg.net, Chris Rovzar
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
