COURCHEVEL, France — The message came across loud and clear: Moncler wants the biggest slice of the luxury high-performance mountain apparel market. And it most likely knows how to get it.
The brand mounted another runway extravaganza for its Grenoble division at France’s Courchevel Altiport, Europe’s highest airport at 6,588 feet — with a scary-short and upward-sloping runway to boot.
The aviation complex, opened in 1961, was the brainchild of Michel Ziegler and his wife, Martine, who owned the restaurant Les Pilatus flanking the runway — an indicator of how hospitality is very much woven into the fabric of the clifftop village.
The show on Saturday night capped off a two-day brand experience that offered guests a peek into the lavish lifestyle of the tony destination’s regulars, complete with après-ski events, music dinners and nightclub fun.
“This wasn’t just a show; we wanted to create an experience. It didn’t feel corporate at all. It felt more like a family gathering than a typical corporate weekend event,” said Moncler’s chairman and chief executive officer Remo Ruffini.
“I want to extend that same feeling to our end consumers. I always push to have more of them involved because they are our true ambassadors, our spokespeople and, in my opinion, one of our brand’s greatest assets…the goal is to deepen that connection, to make Moncler feel more familiar and approachable to our consumers,” he said.
“Ideally, I would love for Moncler to become a company that creates experiences, not just events, but true brand experiences at every touchpoint. That, to me, is the next frontier,” he added.
Top members of the Hollywood set attended, including Anna Hathaway; Adrien Brody fresh off his Oscar win; Jessica Chastain; Penn Badgley; Ashley Park, and Leonardo DiCaprio, in addition to Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz, Tomohisa Yamashita, Qi Wei and Vincent Cassel, among many others.
Courchevel is the crown jewel of the Les Trois Vallées ski region and the city of Grenoble is about 75 miles west. Moncler named the collection Grenoble in homage to the 1968 Winter Olympics held in that town, when the brand supplied gear to the French national ski team.
According to Ruffini, the gargantuan production over the weekend reflected Moncler’s strategy of working “across the three dimensions of our brand [the other two being Moncler Genius and Collection]. One of them is Grenoble, which may be the smallest, but it’s the one closest to my heart because it truly represents our brand’s DNA,” he said, adding the division contributes a high single-digit percentage of the Moncler brand’s revenues.
“I think Grenoble has now reached a level of credibility in the market that’s almost unmatched. I believe we are, so to speak, the leaders in luxury ski apparel,” Ruffini said. “It operates in a very interesting niche. We were born in the mountains, and we come from the mountains. Over the years, I’ve become somewhat obsessed with quality and skiing, and I don’t see anything on the market that quite matches what we do.”
“We’re not aiming for reckless growth.…Instead, we’re positioning Grenoble at the pinnacle of our brand. I believe we’re getting very close to achieving that,” he said. “The key now is to improve our distribution. We need more dedicated spaces for Grenoble.…That’s something we’re looking to expand into other mountain resorts in the future.”
Moncler Grenoble operates one store in Saint Moritz, Switzerland, where last year the brand hosted an equally striking event for the division. High on Ruffini’s retail agenda for Grenoble are Courchevel and Aspen, as well as the Japanese ski resort Niseko, he said.
In keeping with the aviation theme inspired by the show venue, guests were welcomed in Courchevel with an airport map-style leaflet with the schedule of the two-day event, a show ticket shaped like a boarding pass and instead of shabby airline fleece blankets, a cloud-light duvet cape.
The latter came in handy as a snow blizzard started in midafternoon on Saturday, taking even locals by surprise, unaccustomed to late winter precipitation, and forcing the brand to push back the show by an hour.
Among the many guests who called the experience “surreal” was Badgley. “I’ve never done anything like this. It’s so cool,” the “You” star said.
A nuisance for showgoers and models alike, snow stirs in Hathaway childhood memories of a suspended time when her hometown was dotted in the white stuff.
She said she just felt very lucky to witness such a spectacle. The rest of the audience was, too.
Indeed, the snowflakes floating down made for the perfect icing on top of the 140 look show, which was accompanied by a live orchestra, polar lights projected into the sky and models striding the airport’s runway toward the audience as if returning from a high-adrenaline expedition, “The Spy Who Loved Me”-style.
The first several looks reinforced what Moncler Grenoble’s DNA is all about: polarwear aimed at outdoorsy activities, especially since Ruffini rebooted the division, boosting its association with high performance, in 2022.
But even the first ski suit — a workwear-inflected jumpsuit with cargo pockets — telegraphed the brand’s ambitions in the category are very much linked to innovation. Crafted from denim treated with a special finishing and paired with a waterproof membrane, it set the tone for a lineup rich in what-you-get-is-better-than-what-you-see fashion.
For those who can see themselves snowshoeing in a performance skirt suit, here there were plenty of choices disguised as BCBG bouclé or tweed sets vaguely nodding to the ‘60s. Particularly appealing was a salmon pink version layered over a hooded mustard rib knit, crafted from intricate wool embroideries on a nylon base for the wearer to stay warm, dry — and chic.
Ditto for tartan pants and matching shearling-lined overshirts or houndstooth wools plied into field- or workwear-jacketed ski suits, worn by both women and men, convincing for their active-meets-retro-urban sophistication.
Even the faux fur-trimmed chunky cable-knit puffers with a coordinating turtleneck and wraparound skirt or apron dress, many iterations of which punctuated the collection’s après-ski and leisure segments, challenged the conventions of appropriate mountaintop gear. They were often paired with snow boots done in collaboration with category specialist Moon Boot.
Shaggy faux furs, fur trims and cuffs were abundant, in sync with the trend seen on the recent Milan and Paris catwalks. A gorgeous forest green furry coat sported by Eva Herzigova read Gen Z cool and wasn’t unlike styles worn a few hours before by many guests at the fancy après-ski spot Bagatelle.
In menswear, the activewear offering shined the brightest, with numerous iterations of ski gear — in traditional mannish fabrics, including corduroy; in aviator jumpsuit styles; gorpcore-nodding, or retro-tinged — to accommodate everyone’s needs, including Badgley’s, an avid skier and snowboarder.
The male models often trod the catwalk carrying Moncler Grenoble ski equipment cross-body, including the latest snowboard created in partnership with brand ambassador Shaun White.
Après-ski the men would restyle technical gear, for example ditching performance jackets for intarsia-ed puffers with Fair Isle patterns layered atop buffalo check shirts and cargo denim pants.
Brody said among the many characters he played, Dmitri Desgoffe und Taxis from “Grand Budapest Hotel” would definitely blend in the best in Courchevel. Should there ever be a reboot, Mark Vanderloo’s cocooning puffer coat (look 48) with big lapels would make a great movie costume on the Oscar-winning actor.
Moncler Group may be bucking the luxury slowdown, having reported sales of more than 3.1 billion euros in 2024, but it’s no secret consumers are turning their focus toward travel, wellness, and experiences, rather than fashion.
If Saturday’s show — and the overall brand experience in Courchevel — was any indicator, one reason is that Ruffini is successfully building a lifestyle proposition around the company, Grenoble included.
The two-day trip exuded the familiarity — and “warmth,” as Brody put it — of a luxurious weekend getaway among a circle of friends just enjoying the slopes. Many of Ruffini’s friends indeed were there, including Marco Bizzarri, OTB Group’s Renzo Rosso, and Loro Piana CEO Damien Bertrand, among others.
A few hours before the show, Ruffini was slaloming down the sunny, pre-storm slopes in a Grenoble outfit. Queuing for a gondola lift, he said,” Today’s amazing, isn’t it?” Indeed.
