Why Are New Yorkers Wearing Hiking Clothes to Work?
Plus tips for traveling with wine, a romantic mountain town, and the truth about a legendary Alpine fossil comes out
This week we’re sharing Julia’s musings on the uptick of mountain wear in NYC. But first,
🍽️ An Eater’s Guide to the Most Retro-Chic Ski Towns in the Alps - Eater
🧳 How to Travel with Wine - CNN
🏔️ Gastein: The Most Romantic Destination in the Alps? - In The Snow
🕵️ A Legendary Fossil Found in 1931 in the Italian Alps is Deemed a Fake — The Washington Post
Earlier this month, New York Fashion Week descended on the city. I rarely notice Fashion Week apart from the fact that most restaurants are packed and rideshare is in a perpetual state of surge pricing. While I find runway looks largely unattainable in terms of cost and execution, I do like the opportunity for self-expression and theatrics that comes with dressing. To really illustrate that point, one of my favorite wardrobe items is a “dad” hat that I bought from Meredith Erickson’s website a few years ago. It’s a simple hat, snow white with “Alpine Everything” embroidered in big red letters. Simple yet not subtle. I get a kick out of wearing it around NYC, especially when another fan of Meredith’s book Alpine Cooking recognizes it. In my head, the hat announces, “physically I’m in NYC, mentally I’m in the mountains.” I’m sure some people who’ve seen me wear it on the bus think I’m just mental.
However, I’m far from the only one who’s embraced alpine-inspired outfits in the city. A fashion phenomenon has sprung up in New York over the last year or so which has inspired my fellow urban alpinists to go to work in hiking clothes.
It used to be that the only people in NYC who hit the pavement in hiking clothes were European (particularly German) tourists. You could spot them in SoHo a mile away: technical fabric pants, Jack Wolfskin rain jackets, hiking boots, and backpacks clipped across their chests. While I couldn’t understand why anyone would dress for K2 while summiting the host stand at Balthazar, I did appreciate their commitment to exploration, urban or otherwise. Then, about a year ago I noticed an increasing number of New Yorkers going to work in chunky hiking shoes, jaunty day packs, and embroidered beanies. As the year progressed into colder temperatures, Alpine lace-up winter boots, felt coats, and “apres ski” sweaters were everywhere.
Could it be that the Alpine Wine Society had finally infiltrated the consciousness of hip and trendy New Yorkers, giving way to a Renaissance of high altitude-inspired wine bars and activities? Probably not, at least not yet! So what accounts for the sudden embracement of alpine chic?
I suspect that we are finally moving on from the athleisure era of $300 yoga pants at the office. Goretex is a step above spandex, a more mature version of healthy lifestyle signaling and comfortable clothing. Replacing said yoga pants are Salomon shoes, Cotopaxi backpacks, and embroidered Toteme jackets. Indoor cult workouts like Barry’s Bootcamp are passé because real wellness means hiking upstate on the weekend. And in the Instagram era, did you really go hiking if you haven’t told everyone about it with your new Snow Peak pack?
I also think there’s something else at play with fashion’s interest in mountain wear, which is that mountain wear is an extension of the stealth wealth trend that’s been going strong for the last couple of years. If you haven’t heard of “stealth wealth fashion”, it’s basically summarized as wearing expensive, well-made clothes in subtle, sumptuous fabrics that lack flashy designer logos. It’s “quiet” and the only people who know what you’re wearing are the other people who can afford it. Basically, it’s what Gwyneth Paltrow wore to court in her ski crash trial – alpine chic, indeed — but in her case, everyone noticed it and everyone wanted to wear it.
In many ways, mountain clothing is perfectly suited to stealth wealth dressing: natural, expensive fibers like wool and cashmere; earth-tone colors; and a refreshing lack of noise. These garments are not new to the well-heeled and have been long-associated with wealthy travelers who have the resources, financial and otherwise, to participate in leisure mountain sports, or sit in the salon of a grand rural hotel while others do.
Why have I dedicated space on a wine newsletter to discussing clothes? To start, we created the Alpine Wine Society as a sort of Helvetic trojan horse into the worlds of alpine wine and spirits. Telling non-wine obsessives that they MUST try a bottle of Fendant "La Mourzière" or “Torrette Supérieur” simply because they are very good is not an inspired sell. But taking the things that someone already likes, whether mountain sports, cooking, or even clothes, and connecting those pursuits to a bigger picture lifestyle where wine is part of the experience IS very enticing.
As for the sudden prevalence of hiking clothes on the subway, I’ve decided that it’s a good thing. If more people take an interest in the mountains, however basic, maybe they’ll take more of an interest in protecting those spaces, too. You might say that I’m being too optimistic, but fashion has long been able to communicate more than simply style: it can communicate ideas about our politics, religions, and philosophies.
In her Substack BACK ROW, the writer Amy Odell published a great interview with Avery Trufelman, host of the Articles of Interest podcast, which discusses clothing, fashion and power. Reviewing a stack of outdoor clothing catalogs from the 1800s, Trufelman observes: “they're all these gentlemen hunters, smoking pipes, and while they're clearly not woodsmen, they're out on their estates on the weekends. So it's really about, I think in a modern context, a sort of reclamation of values. To be like, I don't live online. I have a full, rich, outer life that's not about surface signaling. I appreciate luxury, I travel, and I enjoy a good, meaningful life.”
With that in mind, and returning to Barry’s Bootcamp, if studio workouts are utilitarian, outdoor exercise is transcendent. And if the miniskirt’s appearance in the 1960’s could signal a new era of feminism, maybe we can eventually reach a new era of climate consciousness, one Alpine Everything hat at a time.