EXCLUSIVE: Napapijri Names Christopher Raeburn First Global Creative Director
MILAN — For the first time in its 36-year history, outerwear brand Napapijri has named a global creative director, appointing Christopher Raeburn, the British designer known for his sustainable credentials as a recycling and upcycling fashion pioneer.
Revealing the appointment exclusively to WWD in a joint interview with Raeburn, Napapijri president Silvia Onofri said “having a creative director is like having a brand curator, [which] in our holistic view [defines] where we want to go and the vision of the brand, which can be expressed in full if the brand has a proper guide.”
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The first Napapijri collection fully designed and developed under Raeburn’s lead will bow for fall 2025. He will debut a capsule collection for the spring 2025 season.
Raeburn is no novice in the family of VF Corp., which owns Napapijri, since he previously held the roles of global creative director and collaborator at large at Timberland, another label in the U.S. giant’s portfolio.
“Napapijri in the ‘90s used to be an elevated, premium brand in the fashion panorama and then at a certain point the brand message [got] diluted and it started to move more toward making [just] products. Now we want to get back to being a brand, with a brand spirit, brand vision, to be immersive and have a reason why, and a creative director is really the key to curate this vision, especially someone like Christopher,” Onofri said.
Onofri was appointed president last February, succeeding Massimo Ferrucci, after a 20-year career in fashion at luxury companies such as Bulgari and Bally.
“Christopher’s priorities are exactly Napapijri’s priorities. We are really immersed in our archives, trying to translate this in what I like to call the ‘back to the future’ vision, where from our DNA…we want to move toward innovation, with a clear focus on sustainability, for a brand that is culturally relevant in the panorama and Christopher has exactly the same values in what he does. We can match perfectly in this journey,” Onofri said.
“Ultimately it’s about how we can take an amazing brand that has an abundance of authentic and incredible products and how we can futureproof that,” Raeburn concurred, highlighting how retail concepts, digital tools, sustainability and innovation will be core to his vision as much as products.
Napapijri was founded in 1987 in the area around Mont Blanc as a maker of travel bags crafted from waxed cotton canvas. Since then the company has grown into a premium lifestyle brand with an outdoorsy and urban bent that offers men’s, women’s and kid’s ready-to-wear, footwear and accessories. It’s been part of VF’s portfolio since 2004.
Known for his hands-on approach to responsible design, the Royal College of Art graduate launched his brand Raeburn in 2009, starting to champion the sustainability conversation in London at a time when few were talking about the dangers that fashion, manufacturing and consumption were posing to the planet. He has since retooled his business to keep pushing his sustainable agenda, most recently introducing Raefound, a capsule of original, unworn military pieces purchased from government offices in the U.K. and Continental Europe.
As a collector of vintage outerwear boasting an extensive archive, Raeburn said he did not necessarily have a personal attachment to Napapijri but approaching the company he soon discovered a community of people who do. “Part of my job here is to [find out] how we can continue to build on that soul that the company has,” he said.
He pointed to the extensive Napapijri archives as a source of inspiration. “It’s hundreds and hundreds of brilliant and beautiful pieces and such myriad fabrications, design details, all of those things. If that’s not a strength I don’t know what it is,” he said.
“We’ve just got an amazing opportunity to bring, I think, more character to the product and what I mean is all those beautiful details that you’d expect…
“Maybe in recent years it’s become a little bit too clean. Also the work I do with Raeburn, it is about textures, it is about techniques, about an artisanal approach, while also bringing technology and innovation in. That’s the hybrid we need,” the designer said.
Raeburn stressed that he wants to boost the community of outdoorsy enthusiasts around the brand and build on its heritage while looking at new engaging ways to cater to that audience, including by using AI and digital fashion, as well as communication activities to become “part of the cultural zeitgeist,” he said.
“There’s a dualistic soul to the brand, it’s like sun and moon, and that’s what makes the brand unique,” Onofri concurred. “It was born in the Alps but it’s also extremely cool for urban use.”
“It’s time to wake up the sleeping beauty, twisting it in a nice way for 2023 with a projection for the future,” she added, saying the brand resonates with consumers in a very personal, memories-filled way. “Napapijri is a strange animal at the end of the day, because the anorak shape is very unusual, the color strokes, the patches [are, too]. It’s something cool and unexpected. A creative director can really make a jewel out of this,” she said.
The appointment of Raeburn is seen as pivotal in engaging global customers. Napapijri has stronger awareness and footprint in Europe, Onofri said, but there’s growing interest for it across geographies including the Middle and Far East, as well as the U.S. The brand is no stranger to working with British designers, having collaborated with Martine Rose on collections for the last few years.
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