Fashion Mogul #4: Patriotism, or American Fashion-Lovers’ Lack Thereof

I love the 4th of July. This may come as a no-brainer. I am American, and while proud may not be the right word, you can find me beaming with joy as kids run around, sugar-high-ed and happy, unattended on crisp, green lawns, the smell of smoke from barbecues and fireworks lingering in the air.

Perhaps it is the unbridled euphoria of self-indulgence at the expense, nay, the rejection, of classiness. Heinz. Hot dogs. Light beer. Blue jeans. Many of us adore these things, but they aren't luxurious—far from it.

We don't care how we look. If we did, we probably wouldn't set up picnic tables full of bowls of potato chips, potato salad, french fries, and a salad as a flat side note. Heck, most of us don't even know what we're celebrating until we reach about the 6th grade.

Speaking of classiness, no one exudes refined elegance as much—or as pointedly—as the Europeans. While America and Australia are stuck with an image of mullets and dirtbikes, Europeans quietly beat us all in the ongoing competition of style with wine picnics, art museum strolls, and berets.

It's not just concerning clothing, either. The Cybertruck was made in Austin, Texas. The Porshe was made in Germany. That tells us all we need to know.

What's the old saying? You can always tell who the American tourist is while in Europe, because they never dress up? Much of the same sentiment can be found in skiing.

This idea is, perhaps, epitomized by the 1950s. With the 1950s came aprés , and a whole new opportunity to showcase one's outfit on and around the mountain .

Ski fashion was making leaps and bounds, spandex was newly invented, and ski clothes were more high-performance than ever before. It was no GORE-TEX, mind you, but it was great progress.

Functionality aside, something about the luxurious wool sweaters (which originated from Norway , with roots also in Iceland, Finland, Ireland, Germany, and Peru, to name a couple more non-American heritage lines)—feel classy, and for good reason.

You could wear one on the lift, under a functional ski jacket, and then you could turn around, rack your skis, and march right up to the banquet hall for an awards ceremony without missing a beat.

Norwegian skier Stein Eriksen popularized these fashionable wool sweaters on American soil in the early 1950s when he moved to the States. By teaching people to ski, the style quickly caught on. He likely didn't have to try too hard to sell Americans on the idea of wearing the item of clothing while skiing.

Around this time, in 1952, specifically, Moncler, one of the pillars of skiing's high fashion, was invented by René Ramillon and Andrè Vincent . The name Moncler is an abbreviation of the mountain village Monestier-de-Clermont near Grenoble, France.

Flash forward: Moncler is a staple in the wardrobe of the rich and famous to this day, in France, the U.S., and worldwide.

Moncler has risen above just a fashion statement to an overall status symbol. Moncler means wealth and vice versa. A-list celebrity rapper 21 Savage has a song titled "Moncler" where he raps, "twenty five hundred on my jacket, Moncler."

This is not to say that important worldwide brands like the North Face and Patagonia haven't been founded in the US of A. These brands are deeply American, modern reflections of the casual-meets-functional ethos championed by Levi's so many years ago. They look great. They're sturdy. They don't, however, have a runway-ready je ne sais quoi—unless you're talking about the North Face x Gucci collaboration , which, to my point, involved Italians.

I was hoping that American slopestyle fashion would save us here in the modern era against this made-up-competition with the Europeans, but even in this category, one of the most famous park-influenced brands, Harlaut Apparel from Henrik Harlaut, is Swedish. Capeesh, too, with their popular belts, emerged from across the pond. And another more recently youth-popular streetwear-skiwear brand, Vulgus 365, is Canadian (not technically European, but Quebec feels a lot more like it than New York... oui? ).

Vishnu and Arsenic Anywhere, among others, come to the rescue here. We have our own cottage industry of ski brands with streetwear sensibilities. But one would be hard pressed to call the looks on offer here luxurious. Stylish? Absolutely. Wear-to-a-formal-event fashionable? Not in the same way as a Moncler wool sweater.

Then again, try to tell that to an American.

Related: Fashion Mogul #3: The Snow Bunny

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