The endless swiping of internet culture – dating apps, social media, news – inspires the latest chapter of Moncler Genius, seeing the outerwear behemoth unite with Gentle Monster, a Seoul-based eyewear label known for boldly conceptual frames and immersive, imaginative retail concepts (its various store designs have featured kung-fu ‘warrior aliens’, undulating ‘rice fields’ and even a giant robotic probe).
While Gentle Monster has previously collaborated with an eclectic array of fashion labels, among them Hood By Air, Coperni, and Ambush, as well as cultural figures like Tilda Swinton, and Jennie, from K-pop girl group Blackpink, this new partnership – Moncler + Gentle Monster (‘Gentle Moncler’) – encompasses both eyewear and a rare foray into clothing.
Moncler + Gentle Monster at ‘Mondogenius’ event
Titled ‘Emotional Swiping’, the collection explores what Moncler calls ‘the pervasive swiping that denotes emotions, instant gratification and approval in the online world’. This theme runs throughout the pieces, imagined as a riff on the Moncler ‘badge’ – a sign of authenticity that appears on the majority of the Italian brand’s garments – here elongated to appear as if ‘swiped over’, featuring across the collection as a way to ‘question the limiting binary of this universal habit’.
The pieces themselves channel the sleek, futuristic vision Gentle Monster has refined in its eyewear, spanning minimally decorated sweatshirts, T-shirts and technical-knit dresses in ‘Moncler black’ – the last with white Tron-like stripes across the arms and chest – as well as new takes on the signature Moncler puffer and gilet (cleanly designed, with V-shaped graphic quilting and zip pockets across the back). ‘[The clothing] creates a bold, yet sympathetic canvas for the signature eyewear,’ says Moncler.
Moncler + Gentle Monster at ‘Mondogenius’ event
As such, it is the eyewear capsule that provides the collection’s highlight, a selection of high-shine, shield-like frames that are equally apt for both ski slope and the everyday – whether wraparound frames with orange-gradient lenses or sleek oval silhouettes in crisp shades of optic white, black and scarlet. Specially created metal hardware, reflecting the ‘swiped’ Moncler logo motif on the clothing, operates as closures or hinges on the otherwise unembellished designs.
In celebration of the collection’s launch, Moncler and Gentle Monster will also unite on a special pop-up space in the latter’s ‘Haus’ concept store in Seoul, featuring an installation that promises a ‘blurring between reality and the digital world navigated through the swipe’.
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