Moncler Makes Its Mark on Fifth Avenue With a Palatial New Store

While New Yorkers are desperately clinging to the last moments of summer, Moncler has managed to do the impossible: Get them excited about the cold. On Thursday night, friends of the Italian fashion brand escaped the hot, muggy outdoors when they stepped inside the palatial and glacial brand-new Moncler flagship store on Fifth Avenue. There, they enjoyed passed hors d’oeuvres, free-flowing champagne, and some of the best celeb spotting of fashion week thus far.

The new store sits in the General Motors Building, the former FAO Schwarz site (which more recently acted as a temporary Apple Store). The facade is impressive, with its sturdy black frame of glass, but the real magic begins upon entrance. Moncler worked with Gilles & Boissier on the interiors, the brand’s partners for over 20 years and 250 stores. This is their crowning achievement together, the largest Moncler flagship at 23,680 square feet spread across two floors.

Inside, glass walls blur the lines between the exterior and interior while ceiling-grazing pine trees bring the outside in. Saint Williams granite covers pillars and walls, while reflective surfaces throughout turn the entire space into an Alice in Wonderland-like maze. You never know what you will find around a corner. The first floor boasts the men’s and women’s collections alongside large wooden sculptures, but farther back, the space expands into a grand hallway. There, more designs from the main line are on offer, as well as footwear and accessories. Iconic Moncler pieces sit like museum displays along the gallery. The gown-cum-puffer-jacket designed by Pierpaolo Piccioli for Moncler Genius 2019, made famous by Sarah Jessica Parker in And Just Like That, clothes a mannequin.

Each room set off from the main hall feels like a store in itself. The children’s alcove, for example, is all mirrors and light wood, but another cozy, upholstered enclave would feel at home in Versailles. Across the way, one can admire a charming statue of a bear climbing the Empire State Building as digital birds fly around him; the character is courtesy of former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive, whose creative collective Love From is collaborating with Moncler on novelty items available in-store.

The journey continues upstairs, where Moncler Grenoble—the brand’s mountain and outdoor arm—lives. Inside individual galleries, you’ll see snow gear and goggles, hiking supplies and snowboards while mannequins “ski” down the aisle. An hour spent among these goods and you could emerge from the store expecting to land on the streets of Aspen or Saint Moritz. A stone-covered bar, as well as Moncler to Measure, the label’s new made-to-order atelier can be found nearby an array of puffers, rendered in fur or tweed and decorated with floral appliqués and crystals.

It has been a week of appreciation for Moncler. On Tuesday, the brand organized an exhibition in Grand Central Station coinciding with the store’s opening. On view through Sunday, those walking across the Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall can check out “New York in Moncler,” a retrospective showcasing the long-standing relationship between the brand and the city. Large-scale photographs highlight unforgettable moments of close collaboration and cultural exchange over the past two decades.

The flagship store adds to that ongoing legacy, as does the opening event, which was rife with big names. Julia Roberts ignored the 80-degree weather outside and arrived in a black, tweed puffer jacket worn over a white button-down and bow tie. Cher donned a head-to-toe leather jacket, sweeping her floor-length, tiered skirt around the space. Anne Hathaway enjoyed an Interstellar reunion with Jessica Chastain, also allowing supermodel Helena Christensen to join their chat.

Knicks player Jordan Clarkson didn’t even try to go incognito, arriving in a blue and orange puffer that had guests flocking to him for pictures. Olympic snowboarder Shaun White was a similarly popular guest, but he managed to extricate himself from fans to check out the WHITESPACE x Moncler Grenoble snowboards held upstairs, which he designed in collaboration with the brand.

Despite this guest list, the real VIP might have been Cora, a large, white Borzoi inundated with pets and picture requests throughout the evening. “She’s a client,” Cora’s owner said before providing a verbal inventory of Cora’s many Moncler puffers. “Moncler asked her to come. I’m just her plus-one.” Cora’s tail wagged as she took in the new space; even Moncler doesn’t seem to house their full pet collection in-store as of now. No worries, she can always get a piece made to her measurements at the atelier.