This Designer-Backed Women’s Ski Collection Will Actually Get You Excited For Winter
Ski gear isn’t what it used to be. Gone are the days of Princess Grace and Jackie O gliding down the mountain at Gstaad wearing designer sunglasses, cashmere turtlenecks underneath chunky wool cable knits, and slim, flattering waterproof trousers. These days, if you go to any ski mountain around the world, it’s mostly male-focused snowboarding gear or Moncler suits. It’s true that luxury labels like Chanel and Prada have dabbled in chic, expensive ski gear for the stylish slope-fanatic, and upstart brands have come onto the scene. Ultimately, though, the ski category hasn’t been an exciting one for fashion-forward female enthusiasts, at least until now.
Today, the Aspen- and New York–based, Italian-made ski company Aztech Mountain is launching its first women’s ski collection, consisting of nine pieces including a fitted red down jacket, a shell-shaped puffer coat, and sharp black-and-white ski pants. All of the outerwear is designed with practicality in mind: The silhouettes are soft in shape but not too form-fitting to allow for optimal movement, and the fabrics include waterproof wicking and bonding as well as insulating fleece. The new collection will be available on Aztech Mountain’s website as well as Matches Fashion, Lane Crawford, and Performance Ski, among others.
Casey Cadwallader, the creative director of Mugler and an avid ski enthusiast who grew up with the sport in New Hampshire, has been working with Aztech Mountain for the last five years. The brand was founded in 2013 by Heifara Rutgers (a Marc Jacobs and LVMH alum) and David Roth and is currently stocked in over 122 stores globally.
“This is a great other headspace that I get to jump into sometimes,” Cadwallader said of his work with Aztech. “The brand has always been very connected to a different part of me than my normal fashion side. I grew up in New Hampshire, and I’ve been skiing since I was three years old, and when they initially asked me to join, it just seemed really fun and personal.” He continues: “There are a lot of ski brands that try to do fashion, but when they do it, they do it with a very decorative, multi-colored, crazy sensibility.” What he and Rutgers and Roth were after was a women’s ski collection somewhere between the more mass, sport-focused labels and those sold among the Dior’s and Celine’s in major multi-brand stores around the world.
Also, everything had to work seamlessly between their two worlds of New York and Aspen. “I think many brands talk about a versatility,” Rutgers says. “But understanding what that really means is one of our greatest strengths as a brand. Having that back and forth really comes through in our men’s product, and we’re confident it will extend to the women’s line.” Cadwallader agrees. “We just wanted to create something that wasn’t so loud that you wouldn’t want to put it on if you weren’t on the chairlift.” He adds, “I think there is this idea that you spend all of this money on a ski jacket and then you only wear it when you’re skiing. We found an opportunity to have this crossover where you might really want to wear it in New York when it’s freezing. There’s often snow going sideways in New York too.”
Originally Appeared on Vogue
