When the international fashion crowd descended upon a New York City mired in sooty, ice-hardened snow last week, some sought respite from the bitter cold by attending sweaty NYFW parties. Others, perhaps, dreamt still of a far more picturesque frosty landscape.
Just weeks earlier, on the last Saturday in January, a notable contingent of industry insiders—celebrities, editors, and top-spending clients among them—traveled thousands of miles for the opportunity to witness winter in its peak form in Aspen, Colorado, where Moncler staged the most extravagant fashion show on American soil so far this year. The show was the astounding centerpiece of a destination weekend to celebrate Moncler Grenoble, the Franco-Italian luxury brand’s performance-centric line, and the grand opening of its newest boutique in town.
For the duration of the weekend, Moncler took over Aspen during its high season, when the world’s most affluent skiers—and après-ski enthusiasts—flock to the ritzy resort town for its world-class snowy peaks and boozy parties. The luxury winterwear giant set up their temporary headquarters at the boutique-y Hotel Jerome, the one-time counterculture hub where Hunter S. Thompson was known to hold court during the final decades of his life. (As a Jerome employee informed me, the writer even ran for sheriff of Aspen in 1970.) The festivities kicked off with a cocktail night in the hotel’s moody, antler-festooned lobby bar; other lavish gatherings followed, including a multi-course dinner at the wooden-walled Caribou Club and a languid post-slopes lunch at Casa Tua. (For each meal, the cuisine skewed upscale and Italian.) According to one visiting chauffeur I spoke to, the brand had rented out over 150 black SUVs and drivers from surrounding states—Utah, Nevada—to shuttle guests around throughout the weekend.
Upon arrival, invitees were greeted in their hotel rooms by a truly massive cocoa-brown tote bag made from the same fabric as the brand’s signature puffer jackets; among the gifts inside were a pair of matching snow boots and a sunscreen sample from the brand’s upcoming collaboration with high-end skincare label Augustinus Bader, which is due out later this year. (These complimentary bags, each one approximately large enough to fit a mid-size Border collie, would later become headaches for the TSA staff working at Aspen’s tiny local airport.) A few of these items were also on display in the new, 2,700-square-foot Moncler Grenoble store nearby, whose corner lot is directly across the street from the brand’s first (and still-operating) Aspen store that opened in 2008.
The entryway to the new boutique, which features dark walls and a circular, thatched-style roof, approximates what I imagine it would be like to step inside the massive trunk of a petrified redwood tree. On the racks hang heavy-duty Gore-Tex jackets, technical puffers made to look like grandpa-ish wool cardigans, and wide-wale corduroy sets that can hold up to the elements. Inside, a spokesperson told me that local customers particularly love to buy matching ski sets and shackets, and that a baby pink toggle jacket with a retail price of nearly $8,000 is one of their bestsellers.
The main event—Saturday night’s fall 2026 runway show—was held outdoors, some miles up into the Rocky Mountains, within a valley at the T-Lazy-7 Ranch. The weather forecast looked clearer than it did for Moncler Grenoble’s previous destination extravaganza, which took place in the midst of an actual blizzard at a ski resort in the French Alps. (Prior to that, in 2024, the label staged the show in a snowy forest in Saint Moritz, Switzerland.) At a trodden-snow step-and-repeat en route to the runway site, celebrity guests and important clients posed for photos; the camera flashes flared the brightest for Moncler’s most famous brand ambassadors like Kevin Costner, Adrien Brody, Blackpink’s Jennie, Emily Ratajkowski, Orlando Bloom, and evergreen Winter Olympics VIP Shaun White.
Continuing the event’s no-expenses-spared theme, each of us 400-something attendees were given identical brown puffer vests, hats, and gloves to wear as we queued to be ferried, one by one, via chartered snowmobile up to the site. (Like the aforementioned SUVs, this fleet of 70 snowmobiles had been called in for the occasion.) During the five-minute ride along a winding wooded trail with my taciturn driver at the wheel, our path was lit by a waxing gibbous moon. Through the gap in my provided helmet, I looked up at the clear winter sky and followed a pert line of stars—the constellation Orion’s Belt—as we zipped past snowy pines and paper birch trees, gaining elevation.
At the endpoint was an jaw-droppingly enormous set—a field of snow mounds that reminded me of artist Maya Lin’s famous earthworks, sandwiched by a deep forest and a wall of amphitheater-esque seating—the buildout for which began back in October. Attendees were offered Moncler-branded Yeti flasks filled with their choice of warm chai or sake. The stadium-style bench seats were heated, though each one also came equipped with its own wool blanket and electronic hand warmer to boot. (Even the backstage’s luxury porta-potties were outfitted with Aesop handsoap.)
What followed was a show of a scale not often afforded to fashion shows in the US, thanks to its massive European luxury budget. After dozens of extras clad in monastic white puffer-sheaths emerged from the woods to stand atop the mounds, a stream of 100-plus models led by Gigi Hadid traversed their way down the snowy downhill-slanted runway, each one wearing footwear caged with metal microspikes to grip the terrain. Marching to a hits-packed soundtrack that ranged from Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You” to David Bowie’s “Heroes,” models showcased Alpine-cowboy-style skiwear such as fringed-suede technical jackets, wooly sweaters, and plaid shirts tucked into blue jeans with Indiana Jones-type hats, as well as full-on snow suits with mirrored goggles and branded snowboards. Ahead of the finale, a Minnie Ripperton tune segued into Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” at a volume that blared into the cold night: “Come on darling, let’s exchange the experience.” And indeed, exchange the experience we did.
Afterwards, guests gathered a bit down the mountain for a saloon-style shindig. It’s funny how the dead of winter is when a frigid place like Aspen comes alive. The same is true for a brand like Moncler, who has kept up its own peak season this month—coinciding with an Italian Winter Olympics, no less—with a dedicated Moncler Grenoble exhibition in Milan, a showcase of its winterwear titled The Beyond Performance Exhibit. For the well-to-do ski-and-fashion enthusiasts who currently find themselves in the vicinity of the Games, the display will be on view through the end of the month.