The brands and technologies to know for luxury outerwear

Mackage

Inspired by his brothers’ experience in the leather industry, Eran Elfassy launched the brand in 1999. Two years later, Elisa Dahan joined him and, together, they developed the contemporary outerwear brand Mackage. The Mackage collection is elevated outerwear with a unique balance between fashion and function. Combining the finest leathers, down, and wool with tailored silhouettes and detail the jackets are a modern version of outerwear.

Designed to ensure that every part provides a specific benefit, they ensure optimum comfort, warmth and protection. With features such as breathability, 3-layer fabric membranes, double-faced wool and more Mackage assures the highest quality outerwear on the market.

Woolrich

With a heritage stretching back to 1830, Woolrich is the oldest manufacturer of outdoor clothing in the United States. Established for the purpose of manufacturing clothing for local workers, Woolrich has focused on outerwear since the very beginning and would later provide clothing supplies for the American Civil War and Richard E. Byrd’s famous Antarctic expedition. The brand is a specialist in wool (hence the name), with its first woollen mill established by its founder John Rich in its very first year of existence. Alongside its high-quality woollen fabrics, Woolrich today works with an impressive range of contemporary fabrics including nylons, polyamides, Teflon coatings and much more developed in order to keep out the cold and rain.

@jenniiiiii by @jaypjp @woolrich

The parka has become a mainstay in the Woolrich collection since its introduction in 1972, offering a combination of practical warmth and waterproofing as well as a luxurious feel with Woolrich’s plush collars. The modern interpretation of Woolrich’s parka, the Arctic, features a special Teflon finish to guarantee resistance to snow, rain and wind.

Canada Goose

Canada Goose is one of those rare brands that has become almost synonymous with the country it comes from – and is indeed named after. Creating outerwear designed to combat harsh Canadian winters, Canada Goose coats and jackets come lightweight or down-filled, with fur trims adding to their warmth and comfort. A fusion of timeless design and sleek aesthetics make the down-filled coats just as wearable in the city as they are in a snowed-in Canadian village, creating what could quite possibly be the ultimate winter coat.

@candagoose

Yet despite its heritage of creating jackets designed for bracing the harshest outdoor conditions, Canada Goose has become a favourite in the luxury outerwear space and is a staple part of street style snaps from fashion weeks around the world. Collaborations with brands including Vetements and OVO have followed and so too has expanded into Europe, with Canada Goose opening up its first—and impressive—European shop on London’s Regent Street in 2017.

Where to start your obsession with Canada Goose? For women, the Kensington style-inspired Kinley is the brand’s hero and bestselling parka jacket with a robust Arctic-Tech construction, filled with North American white duck down and a snorkel hood to trap warmth close to the body. The parka is also cut with a modern slim fit—a key factor for its popularity. For guys, the Wyndham jacket is the male equivalent of the Kinley and a mainstay in Canada Goose’s collection, again with an Arctic Tech construction, white duck down, a coyote fur trim and the contemporary slim fit.

Herno

As a heritage brand now at the forefront of technology, Herno provides well-made functional coats and jackets resistant to rain, wind and outdoor exposure. Created by Guiseppe Marenzi and his wife Alessandra in 1948, the Italian sportswear brand has grown from strength to strength maintaining its tailoring skills and craftsmanship throughout.

@herno_official

Named after the river Erno that passes through the headquarters of Herno, the brand name pays homage to their initial inspiration: water. With previous experience in WW2 and employment in a raincoat manufacturing company, Guiseppe found ingenious solutions to improve waterproof materials. This, paired with his inspiration to find adequate clothing to protect against harsh winters, and passion for Italian style, fuses Herno’s legacy.

Y-3

The brainchild of Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto, adidas Y-3 launched in 2003 and heralded the beginning of an ever-closer relationship between high fashion and technical sportswear. In some quarters, the collaboration between Yamamoto’s fashion label and the sportswear giant marked the creation of a whole new category in fashion: luxury sportswear.

Ten years ago, together with adidas we created something that did not exist before and completely projected the future. My desire was and is to make sportswear elegant and chic. adidas is a very personal inspiration to me … it enriches my creative life. – Yohji Yamamoto

@newkissontheblog by @erick_knight

After graduating from Tokyo’s Bunkafukuso Gakuin Design School in the late ‘60s, Yamamoto emerged as one of the most exciting names in Japan’s fashion space. Under his eponymous Y label, Yamamoto first mastered womenswear before expanding into menswear in 1979. Throughout his work, Yamamoto expressed a fascination with the importance of fabrication which is tangible in virtually every piece he creates. By the 1980s, he had received world recognition for challenging the notions of fashion and using untraditional fabrics such as felt and neoprene. His unconventional approach to fabric was at the heart of his collaboration with adidas which gave him access to some of the most advanced fabric processes available in world manufacturing.

Fabric is everything. Often I tell my pattern makers, “Just listen to the material. What is it going to say? Just wait. Probably the material will tell you something. – Yohji Yamamoto

Yamamoto and Y-3 create outerwear delivering industry-leading sports performance with the meticulous attention to shape, detail and aesthetics typically associated with high-fashion garments. It’s merging of luxury fashion and technical sportswear continues to pioneer the future of luxe sportswear, and its growing outerwear collection has undoubtedly had a resounding influence on outerwear designers across the world.

Moose Knuckles

Dating back further competitor Canada Goose the brand launched as a luxury label in 2009. Moose Knuckles provides outerwear designed to protect you against the coldest temperatures and the harshest conditions. Each jacket is rated one out of four levels with the fourth level being the warmest.

Creating tailored outerwear from ethically sourced and proven performance fabrics, their jackets are a mix of luxury quality, heritage, grit and Canadian know-how. The brand prides itself on authenticity, telling the story of Canada. Their sleek and modern aesthetic has meant they have become a firm favourite amongst well-known ambassadors and famous names such as musician Post Malone. Their outerwear fabric composition is 74% cotton to 26% nylon ensuring the parkas are long, lasting and durable. The winter jackets have a temperate rating of nearly -40 degrees and come with heavy-duty zips to withstand wear. All jackets are complete with a high level of water and wind resistance, with some having a faux fur trim in the hood.

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