‘If you’re a proper designer, you can design many different forms’: Jony Ive unpacks his modular LoveFrom, Moncler outerwear collection

It’s a gloomy day in April and the designer Jony Ive is in Milan. The former chief designer at Apple, dressed in a powder blue suit and aviator glasses, is discussing the upcoming release of his latest project with the Italian luxury outerwear brand Moncler. ‘A phone and a building are very different things,’ says the designer, who would know better than most: he has worked on our generation’s most era-defining objects, including the iPod, iPhone and MacBook, as well as Apple Park, the brand's Cupertino campus, with Foster + Partners. ‘But if you’re a proper designer, you can design many different forms. The important thing is the curiosity to go beyond what you’re used to. You need to be aware that you’ve got so much left to learn.’

Jony Ive on his LoveFrom, Moncler modular jacket collection

When Ive left Apple in 2019 after 27 years to found his creative collective, LoveFrom, alongside industrial designer Marc Newson, it gave him the opportunity to follow a range of new and different paths. Their first projects have included rethinking a turntable for audio brand Linn and the development of electric cars for Ferrari. But this latest collaboration with Moncler, a modular collection of jackets that can be mixed and matched with a single down-filled base layer, has allowed the London-born designer to explore a host of new fields: fashion design, textile development and even a reimagining of the humble button.

But how did Ive, a longtime California transplant, and Moncler’s CEO Remo Ruffini, who lives in Milan and hails from Lake Como, begin a conversation about coats? ‘We have a lot of friends in common,’ says Ruffini. ‘When we first started talking, it wasn’t about business, it was just about life. The collaboration, for us, is an opportunity to learn about another world.’

Though the endeavour marks LoveFrom’s first foray into fashion, Moncler has made a habit of teaming up with creatives of all disciplines. Recent collaborators have included rapper Jay-Z’s Roc Nation record label and high-end luggage brand Rimowa. But from the sounds of it, the partnership with Ive presented a new and exciting challenge for the brand. According to Ruffini, the collection’s four pieces took nearly five years to develop. ‘It was quite a long process, one that we’re not used to,’ says Ruffini. ‘Usually we release a collection every three months. But with this, we really allowed ourselves time to create something unique.’

The collection revolves around the Moncore base layer – a simple, collarless, waist-length jacket with a zip-up front – that can be worn by itself or beneath one of three outer layers: a slightly longer field jacket with four patch pockets and a raised neckline; a mid-thigh-length parka; and a poncho with a fixed hood that can be packed into a kangaroo pocket with snap closures.

And though the design may seem simple – the pieces have a distinctly minimal aesthetic – the complexity is in the details. Each coat is made using a single swathe of fabric that has been folded like a kimono to achieve its mostly seamless form. Ruffini’s fabric developers had to look outside their usual techniques to produce it: a typical bolt of fabric is made on a 1.5m loom, but the design required the fabric be woven on a 2.2m version. ‘It’s a much larger loom than we’re used to,’ explains Ruffini. ‘They’re not usually used for clothing, but rather curtains and furniture upholstery.’

Moncler and LoveFrom even developed proprietary textiles for the collection. The recycled nylon used for the shell and core has been produced without using water. Instead, compressed air creates an irregularly textured thread that looks and feels similar to a natural fibre. The fabric, which is yarn-dyed, will be available in a series of muted colours: a butter yellow base, a pale green field jacket, a baby blue parka and a light orange poncho – or universally in a baby powder white (a limited edition of each will also be available in navy). ‘Culturally, a parka, a field jacket and a poncho are all very functional, utilitarian pieces,’ says Ive. ‘But they’ve been made curiously gentle with these soft colours.’

However, the most technically advanced element of the collection is also its smallest. ‘I became obsessed with buttons,’ reveals Ive, who designed an entirely new kind for the project. ‘It’s an idea that is hundreds and hundreds of years old, and maybe it’s perfect, but as a designer, you want to challenge that assumption.’ So how does it work? The inner core and outer layers are connected via a system of five, double-sided magnetic discs on the front, back and sleeves of each garment. When worn separately, each side lays flush with the fabric, but when an outer layer is slipped over the core, they snap together easily via a central dowel that pops out to ensure the two sides don’t move or come loose. ‘I love the rigour of this kind of research,’ he continues. ‘I’ve tried to do new zips in the past, but it’s really hard.’

According to Ive, this won’t be the last we see from Moncler and LoveFrom. ‘This is just the first manifestation of this collaboration,’ he says. But he’s quick to clarify that the process resulted in more than just a cleverly designed line of coats. ‘When you make something, there are two products. There’s the thing you make and there’s what you learned. And what we learned together was, I would argue, more important than what we made.’

LoveFrom, Moncler arrives December at moncler.com and selected stores.

Models: Eduarda Muehlmann at PRM Agency, Tobias Gurd at The Squad Management. Casting: Ikki Casting at WSM. Hair: Tobia Bartolini. Make-up: Faye Bluff at Of Substance Agency using Westman Atelier and Elemis skincare. Set design: Tristan Tilagone at Canvas Represents. Set build: London Art Makers. Photography assistants: Sam Girdler, Pablo Gallegos. Fashion assistant: Lucy Proctor. Set/production assistant: Archie Thomson. Digi tech: Nico Barbieri. Post-production: Mia Gianini.

This article appears in the November 2024 issue of Wallpaper* , available in print on newsstands from 10 October, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today