Over the past few collections, the après-ski aesthetic has gone off the peaks and onto the runways. Louis Vuitton showed chevron patterns that mimicked ridged mountain ranges on 1980s-inspired turtlenecks and matching pleated skirts. At Acne Studios, Nordic zigzagging prints traditionally reserved for sweaters appeared on sashlike scarves worn with skinny gray pants. Marc Jacobs presented dark brown and ivory Fair Isle snowflake motifs on oversize knits, and Moncler Grenoble offered voluminous toffee-hued shearling jackets with poufy embellished skirts. Duran Lantink’s snow white knit dresses took on three-dimensionality with swirling structural silhouettes. But hasn’t a piste always been a powder-covered catwalk?
Well, not initially. Early women’s ski clothing took cues from mountaineers’ garments: In the early 20th century, ladies traipsed down the mountains in gabardine coats, breeches, and bulky long skirts with knickerbockers underneath. The inaugural 1924 Olympic Winter Games, in Chamonix, France, popularized the allure of skiing, leading Parisian fashion houses such as Patou, Hermès, Chanel, and Vionnet to begin designing double-breasted jackets and coquettish, ballooning high-waisted trouser suits that were elegant on the slopes—and somewhat more practical. Lucien Lelong, the French couturier and mentor to Christian Dior, debuted columnar two-piece suits featuring Art Deco stripes and matching hats, gloves, and scarves, while the Italian designer and avid skier Elsa Schiaparelli, whose daughter, Gogo, was a downhill racing champion, put a Surrealist twist on alpine wear with her 1928 “Pour le Sport” collection. Schiaparelli’s wool jackets decorated with rows of dollar-sign clips, fitted knit sweaters with pointy hooded caps, Tyrolean hats, and tortoiseshell goggles were must-haves among the St. Moritz fashion set.
In 1948, the German brand Bogner introduced the first pair of nylon and wool stretch ski pants, which would go on to become an international sensation. Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, and Elizabeth Taylor all donned slim, stirrup-footed designs. Not surprisingly, Hollywood took note: Films like The Pink Panther and Downhill Racer channeled midcentury chalet glamour; in the opening scene of Charade, Audrey Hepburn dines al fresco on a terrace in Megève wearing a chocolate brown knitted catsuit with a matching balaclava by Hubert de Givenchy and large Pierre Marly tortoiseshell shades.
During the Space Age of the 1960s, bolder and brighter colors, not to mention silver Lurex and vinyl, popped up all over mountains as Pierre Cardin, André Courrèges, and Christian Dior started designing playful ski styles for the likes of Sophia Loren and Princess Grace of Monaco. Fashion houses also found inspiration in style-setting muses often seen on the slopes, be it Jane Birkin strolling through the French resort Avoriaz in a fur coat and boots or Brigitte Bardot wearing a floor-length shearling jacket and head-to-toe winter whites while on holiday in Méribel, France.
Countess Jan Bonde in the Palace Hotel sleigh on Lake St. Moritz, Switzerland, 1983.
No one documented midcentury ski chic better than Slim Aarons, whose portraits captured a fur-clad European countess sledding in Saint Moritz; skiers in jumpsuits dining at the members-only Eagle Club in Gstaad; and waiters on skis carrying a bird on a tray.
Alpine resorts are still the place to see and be seen in the latest trends. The difference is that the new ski-inspired looks—cozy intarsia knits, belted puffer jackets, exaggerated fur coats, and sunglasses resembling goggles—are not just for Bombardinos and fondue at the chalet. In any urban capital, they will counter our everyday winter doldrums with a much-needed dose of glamour.
Runway, clockwise From top left: Courtesy of Sacai; Courtesy of Acne Studios; Courtesy of Vivienne Westwood; Courtesy of Louis Vuitton; Courtesy of Marc Jacobs; Courtesy of Alaïa; Courtesy of Duran Lantink; Courtesy of Moncler; Courtesy of Balenciaga. Center: Photo by Swim Ink 2, LLC/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images.
