Icy Hot

Moncler's Grenoble line proves there's more to the 70-year-old brand than cinematic presentations and buzzy designer collabs: decades of Olympian-tested skiwear

- NAOMI ROUGEAU

Moncler, the heritage ski brand, made performance wear chic long before it became a trend on the runway, thanks in equal part to its design know-how and marketing genius. It's safe to say the house has always done things on a relatively large scale, whether it's taking over Manhattan's Grand Central Terminal with a flash mob of dancers donning puffer jackets or rethinking down outerwear as we know it by partnering with Valentino's Pierpaolo Piccioli on a floor-sweeping cape that could very well double as a duvet. Whatever the venue or design, a Moncler event never fails to call to mind the brand's reason for being: a love of winter sports and mountain life in the area surrounding Grenoble, France. And it is the Grenoble range that lies at the heart of the Moncler story.