Black Crows unveils first apparel collection at Ispo

By

Bruno Joly

Published
Feb 9, 2015

Black Crows is diving headfirst into fashion. The ski brand, which until now had only offered hoodies and t-shirts primarily on its website, presented its first apparel collection at Ispo. With a somewhat off-beat style, the collection is squarely positioned in fashion design.

For the project, the brand enlisted Camille Kunz, winner of Hyères Festival Chloe fashion award, and Yorgo Tloupas, an independent designer who has served as the artistic director of Vanity Fair in addition to working with Black Crows since its founding. Koosje Naberman, a textile engineer who has worked at Nike, Tommy Hilfiger and Intersport, has also been recruited. 

"We mix functionality with style. Before we had hoodies and t-shirts for fans of the brand. Now we’re aiming to expand our turf while also staying in the realm of authenticity and freeskiing," said Cédric Charbin, the brand’s CEO since late 2013. 

Black Crows is thus releasing "a wide array" of pieces for men and women, featuring a minute attention to detail. The colleciton includes a jacket, a primaloft top, two base layers and a bottom (overalls for men and pants for women), plus accessories and gloves.

The brand’s logo has strategically been places in key locations such as at sleeve level, clearly visible to other skiers who have brought along their go pros. In terms of functionality, Black Crows has used Gore-tex and Primaloft in its jackets, which come in neutral colors, while the bottoms come in very flashy greens and oranges.

"We’ve made a very intentional choice to have matching colors […] between the tops and the bottoms so that the jackets will be more versatile," said Charbin, who is targetting about 70 clients, including 30-40 in France, for the first season.