Aware that the demand for utility fashion is not letting up, Levi’s Made & Crafted (LMC) has teamed with Yosuke Aizawa, founder and designer of White Mountaineering, the Tokyo-based brand that brings together performance materials with fashion-forward designs that blur the boundaries between streetwear and outdoor gear.
The Fall/Winter 2020 LMC x White Mountaineering capsule collection brings iconic Levi’s garments into this dialogue.
The men’s and women’s collection takes classic winter pieces in denim—like a fishtail parka, oversized cargo pants and an M65 jacket—and re-engineers them with technical fabrics such as nylon and utilitarian elements like drawstring waists.
The collection also gets a range of co-branding elements, including a back patch with White Mountaineering above the LMC Two Horse Pull logo, internal tags with the collaborative logo lockup, and a special collaborative hangtag with the story of the collaboration on the back.
The capsule with White Mountaineering complements LMC’s regular fall collection, which culled style cues from après ski culture. The result is a cold-weather collection that blends “denim-centric style with technical innovation,” the brand described.
“We wanted to re-imagine the Levi’s Made & Crafted version of an alpine winter,” said Nicolle Arbour, LMC global design director.
“Artful layering” as well as utility details and colors inspired by the natural hues of mountains brought a warm and cozy feeling to the men’s line, she added.
Oversized shirts and soft polar fleece pullovers mixed with oversized Type II Truckers are among the cozy styles for men. Sustainable recycled polyester fill insulates the brand’s Mountain Coat, a technical denim coat with a zigzag quilted upper layer.
For bottoms, LMC introduces a new non-denim platform with chinos, made from a Japanese left-hand twill, available in earthy colors like dark moss, brown and black.
For women, LMC mixed exaggerated proportions with colors and textures that brought a nostalgic level of comfort to the collection. Based on ’70s après ski wear, the relaxed silhouettes were enhanced with details like ribbed paneling, twisted seams and fleece sherpa lining.
The collection’s statement outerwear piece—an elongated Trucker jacket with contrasting denim panels and frayed details—features fleece Sherpa lining. The “Duvey Hoodie,” a long-sleeve hooded fleece coat in dusty pink widens the variety of
The women’s collection also includes some bold sartorial moments like a pearlized lilac denim shacket and slouchy jeans with an iridescent finish, a puffed sleeve denim jacket in a frosty blue finish and a Trucker jacket that features French jacquard sourced from Malhia Kent.