I don’t want to wear my old fur coat anymore, and even shearling doesn’t seem right, but I’ve always avoided puffers because they make me feel like the Michelin man. I get cold easily and most wool coats are not warm enough for a real winter. Any suggestions for a chill-prone city dweller? — Danielle, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
As death and taxes are for life – absolute certainties – so too is the fact that if a piece of clothing was once considered absolutely out of fashion, fashion will rediscover it and find a way to make it chic. Example: the puffer coat.
The renaissance has been going on for a while, but as more and more brands give up fur (Dolce & Gabbana is the latest), this may be the most stylish alternative. Which means it’s time to rethink any bias against the puffy stuff.
As Ikram Goldman, owner of Ikram, the favorite Chicago boutique for the city’s power dressers, said when I asked her what she thought of the garment, “I’m only wearing a puffer, and I love it.”
After all, today’s puffers aren’t your grandmother’s puffers. Indeed, they aren’t even the puffers you might remember from sledding adventures as a kid. They are often ultra-light – comparable to wearing a warm bath – and streamlined.
Pretty much all designers have tried it, including Demna, who arguably started the current trend with his first Balenciaga collection, and Kanye West, whose Yeezy x Gap version was the first product to emerge from that collaboration (and still is one of the only two) – while it doesn’t have any closures, it probably isn’t the answer for you.
The Moncler Genius program, in which the company enlists a range of high fashion names to reinvent its signature outerwear, has attracted Rick Owens, Simone Rocha, Jonathan Anderson, Craig Green, Pierpaolo Piccioli and Kei Ninomiya of Noir, just to name a few. to name a few.
And this is not an entirely new phenomenon. Eddie Bauer is widely regarded as the father of the ready-to-wear puffer jacket, who invented a down-insulated garment in 1936 after nearly dying on a fishing trip. (It was later licensed by the Air Force and dubbed “the Skyliner.”) But a year later, the couturier Charles James created the “pneumatic jacket,” a squiggly quilted satin puffer that was likely the first high-fashion piece.
Then there’s the Norma Kamali sleeping bag jacket, one of the definitive fashion pieces of 1973 and still a statement piece. (When great fashion editor André Leon Talley recently passed away, many of his obituaries included a photo of him in his prized cherry-red Kamali sleeping bag coat.).
Prices range from the very affordable (“I’m obsessed with this puffer from Costco,” Ikram said) to the very high-end, and styles from completely basic to urban outdoors. But certain couture-esque details – collars and hoods that frame the face; a cut that is narrower at the shoulders; pockets that go beyond the practical – make the difference between a jacket that looks like you’re preparing for an Everest trip and one that looks ready for an urban summit.
Check out this portrait collar jacket from Gentle Herd, which offers both ethical manufacturing and price transparency, with its funnel neck and neatly placed Manière de Voir pockets. Or experiment with different styles of Rent the Runway until you find your comfort zone. That way you get all the style and none of the dedication.
Your style questions, answered
Every week on Open Thread, Vanessa answers a reader’s fashion-related question, which you can send her anytime via e-mail or Twitter. Questions have been edited and compressed.