It was the Karakorum down jacket that Moncler designed in 1954 for Italian explorers scaling the world’s second highest mountain that set the tone for what the brand would become. From the very beginning, Moncler has stood for innovation, exploration, collaboration and seeking out the extraordinary. And it is this impressive legacy of pushing creative boundaries and refusing to settle for anything other than excellence that is being celebrated around the world over the next couple of months, as the brand marks its milestone 70th anniversary with 70 days of extraordinary global events and activations.
Having officially started with a jaw-dropping, artistic takeover of Milan’s Piazza del Duomo over the weekend (for which renowned French choreographer, Sadeck Berrabah, created an incredible spectacle of contemporary dance featuring 1952 artists that explored the power of repetition) Moncler’s 70th-anniversary celebrations are now in full swing, with the brand running an ‘Extraordinary Forever’ global media campaign via archival images that showcase the seminal voices, faces and places that have contributed to its legacy and evolution. Alongside highlighting the brand’s history, the campaign will delve into Moncler’s unique genius, underlining its crucial contributions to our wider cultural landscape.
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Beyond the campaign alone, Moncler has also reimagined its iconic Maya jacket, which presents as the physical culmination of the brand’s history of creative collaboration and clothes that exceed expectations. Available from the 1st of October, the limited-edition Moncler Maya 70 down jacket retains the signature design features of its original (including the classic, boudin-quilted quality), but has been rendered in 13 special-edition colours, from eye-catching metallics to soft, modern pastels and even some high-saturation hues for good measure. Each Maya 70 jacket will be made from Moncler’s new washed-nylon lux lacqué, and will be emblazoned with the exclusive ‘Extraordinary Forever’ anniversary logo — a fitting ode for a jacket that has enjoyed something of a cult status ever since its original release.
Furthermore, in a bid to highlight the extraordinary collaborations that have long kept Moncler at the forefront of fashion, the brand’s CEO has invited seven prolific designers to reimagine the Maya jacket in their own ways. From the 15th of October, inimitable, unique versions of the Maya jacket by the likes of Thom Browne, Hiroshi Fujiwara, Rick Owens, Pierpaolo Piccioli, Francesco Ragazzi, Giambattista Valli and Pharrell Williams will drop each week — the ultimate expression of Moncler’s admirable, creatively-driven philosophy and its focus on perpetual reinvention.
“Since the very first day, nothing at Moncler has been conventional or ordinary,” says the brand’s CEO, Remo Ruffini. “Who would have thought that a sleeping bag designed in 1952 would have reached cities all over the world as a down jacket, or would have been worn by all generations, stepped onto the runways and then be reinterpreted by various creative geniuses?” He continues, “since the beginning, we have always pushed the brand and our ambitions towards higher peaks.”
Of course, Moncler isn’t stopping there. As a core part of the brand’s celebrations, Moncler will be running an ‘Extraordinary Expedition,’ comprising an immersive, globally-roaming exhibition starting at New York City’s Highline before moving to London and Tokyo and finishing in Seoul. In each city, the cutting-edge exhibition will recreate peak Moncler moments via vivid, multi-sensory technology that will harness cinematic video to showcase historical archives and contemporary fashion heirlooms.
These groundbreaking technological celebrations will (in typical fashion) see Moncler push into a whole new arena, as it enters the Metaverse with seven of its very own non-fungible tokens (NFTs), created in partnership with German digital artist Antoni Tudisco. In addition, the brand will release 500 original NFT artworks for each city on its ‘Extraordinary Expedition’ tour — an apt representation of the innovation and future-looking thinking that has kept Moncler at the forefront for 70 years — and will likely see it remain there for the next 70, too.
