We all know that fashion runs in circles and at times (especially as you get older and your experience allows you to make more connections) it becomes really difficult to see a collection and to be able to shake off that persistent feeling of déjà-vu.
Sometimes it is an accessory like a bag that sets the wheels of memory in motion; in other case it's a palette, a shape or a specific garment. In the case of Coach's Resort 2022 collection, launched last week in Shanghai, it was a pair of trousers.
The Resort looks were mainly inspired by skiing and skiwear with plenty of sweaters with intarsia motifs of skiers, shearling coats, boots in pastel hues and retro ski hats (remember the geometrical "squid-shaped" ones?).
One design, though, got the wheels of memory spinning – the trousers: they featured a padded area around the knees and came in contrasting colours; in some cases pastels and combinations of aqua, yellow and skye blue prevailed; in others the brand opted for more classic and subdued tones of navy blue or black and beige.
Yellow, orange and red stripes in jackets and coats vaguely called to mind the colours of the ellesse "semipalla" logo (half a tennis ball with two red seams evoking ski tips) and of some of the skiing suits in bright and bold shades produced by the Italian sportswear brand.
But there seemed to be a more likely connection with the Italian sportswear brand in Coach's trousers: their padded sections and their multiple colours pointed indeed at ellesse's "Jet Ski Pants".
The result of a long research carried out by experts at ellesse who followed skiers during their competitions and collected the athletes' feedback, these stretch ski-pants featured an elastic yoke on the back of the trousers that made movements easier.
The crotch seams were lowered to provide maximum comfort, padded knees were added to protect the legs of the skiers from the frequent accidents they were prone to and internal nylon gaiters prevented snow seepage into the boots.
The styling of the collection rather than evoking the slopes, seemed inspired by urban spaces: Coach's "Jet Ski Pants" were indeed mainly matched with tailored jackets, maybe evoking the early tailoring days of the Italian company when founder Leonardo Servadio (his initials – "LS" – formed the name of the brand) from Perugia, started producing men's trousers in a wide range of sizes (and with names inspired by the Dolomite peaks – "Lavaredo", "Tofana", "Pordoi", "Cristallo" and "Cervino") in collaboration with a local tailor, Vittorio Bigerna.
Experimenting further and still helped by Bigerna, Servadio came up with a pair of trousers made with just 1 metre and 10 cm of fabric. As the months and years passed the orders multiplied, and, in the mid-'60s, the company became the second trouser manufacturer in Italy. One of the first pairs of skiing trousers was created after Servadio found among the stock at his father's warehouse a thick and elastic fabric and decided to make a few garments with it. This was the first time elasticised fabric was used to make clothes in Italy.
The '60s also brought a new idea: ellesse had been producing skiing pants with an embroidered penguin logo for a while and, in 1967, Servadio opted for a plastic penguin logo applied on one of the thighs.
The following year, to promote the brand, Servadio placed the brand name on the lower part of the trousers. It was the first time a sportswear manufacturer featured its brand name on the outside of its garments and it turned out as one of the most successful intuitions Servadio ever had (skiing champions – among them also Gustav and Rolando Thoeni and Erwin Stricker, members of the "Valanga Azzurra", the Italian national ski team – were the perfect models for these designs).
Interestingly enough, Coach also used its (embroidered) logo along the legs of the Resort trousers, placing it above the left knee, so it must have also borrowed this idea fro vintage ellesse skiing pants.
So, what to do of this collection? Well, the tailored style combined with the skiing pants may perfectly represent our hopes to regain freedom as soon as possible after a year of Coronavirus and finally being able to fly away from our cities and urban environments to explore wider spaces like vasta mountainous landscapes.
That said this is definitely not a style for everybody, but if you feel like opting for it, well, browse the Internet and you may find some original vintage ellesse skiing pants (View this photo) that will allow you to recreate the same look at a fraction of the price, while proving you are a genuine retro ski style connoisseur.
As for modern brands, well, rather than copying vintage designs they should copy what these vintage brands achieved: in 1979 ellesse was invited to exhibit the Jet Ski Pants at the Centre Georges Pompidou during an event dedicated to Italian design.
It was a remarkable achievement: the skiing trousers were considered on par with the portable Olivetti typewriter "Lettera 22", they were indeed part of the history of contemporary industrial design as they provided a technical and stylish solution for the needs of skiers. How many garments and accessories seen on modern runways will ever end up in a contemporary industrial design exhibition? Probably not many or none at all…
