Yes, Please: Gucci and The North Face Announce Collaboration
Fashion right now is an old-timey country hoedown: everyone’s partnering up and two-stepping their way to collaborative designs. Last week, the biggest news in the fashion world was that Supreme was releasing a range of clothes made with legendary Japanese designer Yohji Yamamato. Yesterday, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons debuted their first Prada collection as a compromising couple. Not to be outdone, on Thursday, Gucci announced an upcoming line of gear with stalwart outdoors brand The North Face.
Gucci first announced the collaboration on TikTok—where fashion now happens, apparently—with a trio of short videos featuring placid nature scenes replete with birds twittering, sweeping mountain views, and a flag flapping in the wind that features a smashed-together logo. There are no clothes yet, or hints as to what’s to come, but seeing those two names together is enough to get excited about. “We can only confirm that Gucci and the North Face will be bringing a collection to life in the coming months that celebrates the rich heritage of both brands!” a representative from Gucci said over email.
While Gucci’s Alessandro Michele has collaborated with artists like GucciGhost or fellow designers like Dapper Dan during his tenure as the Italian house’s head cheese, this is his first time partnering with a brand. This will be old hat for The North Face, though. In this year alone, the brand has worked with MM6 Maison Margiela, Supreme, Junya Watanabe, and Brain Dead.
In today’s fashion wilderness, campers, hikers, survivalists, white-water challengers, arctic explorers, and trekkers no longer have to choose between high performance and high fashion. Between The North Face’s rash of collaborations and its fashion-minded Black Series, Moncler’s Genius program that pairs big-name designers with the brand’s puffy coats, and Loewe’s line of outside-kid gear Eye/LOEWE/Nature, the outdoors has taken center stage in fashion. Gucci’s upcoming collaboration is just further confirmation that gorpcore’s made it to the peak and gone high fashion.
Originally Appeared on GQ
