You’ve never seen a puffer coat do this before.
For the finale of Shanghai fashion week, the Italian outdoor luxury brand Moncler debuted its latest “Genius” collections. Since 2017, Moncler has partnered with external creatives in a crème de la crème of artist collabs, resulting in the release of limited edition collections that push the brand’s design purview somewhere new.
This year included fashion mainstays like Rick Owens and Hiroshi Fujiwara, alongside artists including A$AP Rocky, Willow Smith, and Donald Glover.
For Edward Enninful, the former editor-in-chief of British Vogue, it marked the shift from covering and shaping the world of fashion, to actually creating it. What he presented was less a line than an entire wardrobe of performance garments: sweaters, skirts, peacoats, trenches, scarves—designed for our changing climate, and facing the end of the world head-on.
Enninful’s story is the stuff of literal biography; the Ghana-born boy moved to London as a child, and was appointed as fashion editor to i-D magazine by age 18. He worked there 20 years, before taking the helm of British Vogue where he pushed the storied brand toward wider representation—and resigned with what was perhaps the greatest flex cover in the history of magazine publishing. Along the way, he’s consulted for several labels, ranging from Calvin Klein and Giorgio Armani. But he’s never debuted a collection of his own until now.
“All the feelings are there,” he tells me the morning before his inaugural show. “Nervousness—and excitement.”
Enninful presented dozens of garments and accessories, all of them in black, in the ultimate plea to dress in mix-and-match (but everything will match) layers. “The idea was really inspired by climate change,” says Enninful. “The idea of a woman who really wears everything on her back. Everything she owns, essentially.”
CELEBRATING CONTRASTS WITHOUT COLOUR
Since everything is black, the system is defined by contrasts in texture and cut. That approach begins with technical knit material—which makes up base layers like leggings, cardigans, and capes. Atop that sits tricot, the shiny waterproof outwear material that defines so much of Moncler’s winter gear. The effect mixes sofa softness with indestructible-feeling tech equipment.
“In the absence of colour, you have to deal with textures and shapes. How can we make black versatile?” asks Enninful. “It was all about that push and pull: How do you create something that’s not just undefined and flat?”
Along the way, Enninful injects plenty of classic femininity into a traditionally masculine space. That begins with the icon of the collection, a tricot bonnet that looks ready for 20° below—a move in line with Enninful’s own penchant for scarves and neckerchief wraps, but also a flawless reconstitution of male materiality.
In an exploration of cuts, Enninful displayed a penchant for ground-kissing fabrics that have no fear of extreme environments. That includes the unconcerned drape of a fringed scarf, a nylon skirt that exudes serious boho vibes, and a modified A-line trench coat that hugs the body before blossoming around one’s feet. These opulent lines, however, are in direct contrast to a high cut bomber and a puffer coat that cuts at the midriff, like a vintage mink cape.
A NEW WARDROBE FOR THE END OF THE WORLD
In aggregate, the effect seems to work—you could pair about any garment in the collection with another, so long as you respect the juxtaposition of texture and cut. Though admittedly, small the pile of accessories—just look at those mitt gauntlets complete with change-purse-sized storage on top!—do a lot to add visual glue.
“It’s very easy to create one-off fantastical pieces, but I really wanted to create a wardrobe,” says Enninful.
Enninful’s collection will go on sale in mid 2025, and he teases that while it’s being presented on women, many pieces will be tailored for men—and they may eventually come in more colors than black. But for now, he’s still just buzzing about the first time that his work will reach the runway.
“I have such a newfound respect for designers,” says Enninful. “I spent my whole career working with designers on fashion shows, and it’s like ‘oh my god, you really work on something for so long!’ And they do it so many times a year! I was always on the side advising, but to do it on your own is just incredible. Real respect to designers who do it all the time.”
.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Wilson is the Global Design Editor at Fast Company, who covers the entirety of design’s impact on culture and business.. An authority in product design, UX, AI, experience design, retail, food, and branding, he has reported landmark features on companies ranging from Nike to Google to MSCHF to Canva to Samsung to Snap to IDEO to Target, while profiling design luminaries including Tyler the Creator, Jony Ive, and Salehe Bembury
