Given the state of luxury fashion in 2018—characterized by a widespread interest in collaboration, and a fully in-bloom affinity for streetwear—it makes perfect sense that Milan Fashion Week got things started with a partnership between one legacy label and a lesser-known (but cult-loved) designer. The legacy brand is Moncler, the Italian purveyor of all manner of puffy coats, and the collaborator is Hiroshi Fujiwara, who runs the extra-cool Japan-based label Fragment. Together, they've teamed up on a collection of jackets, vests, fake moncler jackets sweatshirts, and more—basically everything you’d need for fall and winter. "This is the first season of Moncler Fragment, and I wanted to show who I am and what Fragment is,” Fujiwara tells GQ. “I wanted to put Fragment into Moncler."
Moncler is, of course, the brand that turned the puffer jacket into a luxury item—something you could covet and cherish like your favorite denim, not just the drab thing you wear when it’s freezing cold outside. If this is the first time you’re hearing the name Hiroshi Fujiwara, know that he was a creative multi-hyphenate before that was even a thing: a DJ, streetwear designer, and overall arbiter of cool who is as well-versed in hip-hop and rock as he is in sneakers and fashion. In short, he’s never been the type of person to stay within a single fake moncler women jackets discipline. "I always want to do bits and pieces with many people. I don't really want to be one designer for one brand,” explains Fujiwara. “I have to do music, I have to do snowboarding, I can't only do one thing. Collaborating with brands is like making music with other artists.”
At first glance, the collection is easily identifiable as Moncler, full of the iconic puffed-up silhouette and eye-catching patches. But the details are quintessential Fujiwara: graphic typography treatments and Fragment’s lighting-bolt logo, a symbol immediately recognizable to hypebeasts and design aficionados alike. The overall collaboration is divided into two drops, with the “Backstage” collection available now and the second capsule (which also includes a range of flannels and sweaters) to release in December. The first release features a stark palette of black, white, and a muted army green, while the forthcoming collection utilizes Moncler’s iconic reds and blues. It still feels like Moncler, but Fujiwara adds a hard-to-pinpoint youthful energy. A typical Moncler jacket feels timeless and ever-present, but Moncler x Fragment feels urgent—and, perhaps more to the point, like the type of collection that many will rush out to buy.
The best news? Fujiwara isn't the only designer who will give his spin. The partnership is part of Moncler’s Genius program, an initiative that sees the storied brand breaking the traditional one season, one collection cycle in favor of a series of drops and a stream of collaborative products with the likes of Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli, Craig Green, and Francesco Ragazzi of Palm Angels, just to name a few. Neither Moncler nor Fujiwara is new to the art of collaboration, the former having teamed up with the likes of Pharrell Williams and Virgil Abloh for one-off collections (not to mention the label’s ongoing partnership with Thom Browne), and the latter having worked with everyone from Louis Vuitton to Nike to Apple.
Fashion is living in a post–Supreme x Louis Vuitton world; this is almost assuredly the tip of the iceberg when it comes to legacy brands doing limited-edition releases and streetwear-like collabs. Moncler has taken decades of making great jackets and injected the process with the buzzy energy needed to stay on the top of the game—and they’ve done it in a way that is sure to satisfy their own fans, as well as Fujiwara's. And when you can do all that and also sell a ton of puffy jackets in the process? We're all the way on board.