Moncler Maya 70

By Rachel Weinberg

The Italian legacy label Moncler celebrates 7 decades of fearless experimentation and creative collaboration with 7 reimagined Moncler Maya jackets, worn by 7 inspiring faces, and designed by 7 leading designers from around the world.

As part of the brand’s 70th anniversary, Moncler’s CEO and Chairman Remo Ruffini selected 7 designers, close to the brand’s heart, to riff on the classic Maya jacket. Originating in the 1950s, the Maya has evolved over the decades with various iterations and evolutions to become one of the most cherished styles.

Ruffini initiated the Moncler Maya 70 series as a way of bringing previous collaborators into the brand’s anniversary celebrations. Francesco Ragazzi of Palm Angels, Thom Browne, Hiroshi Fujiwara of FRGMT, Rick Owens, Giambattista Valli, Pierpaolo Piccioli, and Pharrell Williams each drew from their own unique aesthetic codes to create an extraordinary limited-edition iteration of the piece.

Renowned photographer and celebrated documentarian Platon has captured each remixed Maya in a series of intimate portraits, featuring a diverse array of extraordinary models and talents, handpicked by the designers from the worlds of fashion, entertainment, and sport.

One such image depicts an architecturally inclined Maya down jacket, designed by the renowned American fashion designer, Rick Owens. The reversible style with an exaggerated shoulder-line features nylon laqué fabric, with recycled nylon satin on the reverse. “I applied the architecturally quilted shoulders that I introduced in my men's Fall/Winter 2021 collection called Gethsemane. It was one of the four shows I did on Venice’s lido beach in Italy during the Covid lockdowns. We refer to them as our girdered shoulders - symbolically meant to support the weight of contemporary adversities,” says Rick Owens, who chose Michèle Lamy for the campaign, adding, “Michèle represents the intimate foundation, past, present, and future of my label. Her unfiltered barbaric elegance has always been one of my guiding stars.” 

With his signature formal twist, American fashion designer, Thom Browne on the other hand, chose actor Lee Pace for the accompanying campaign. He reflects, “I wanted to work with someone who is truly confident in themselves, a true individual. Lee is like family, and I like to keep it all in the family - how nice.” From the perspective of material and intention, Browne crafted his Maya down jacket with flanelle d’angleterre and nylon laqué in a collage of the designer’s distinctive tropes. “Moncler has such strong heritage. I wanted to bring my own signature to the Maya jacket for the 70th anniversary edition: the Thom Browne uniform, thereafter, was pleated, downfilled, twisted, reappropriated,” says Browne.  

Disrupting the conventions of the luxury world, Moncler Maya 70, with its emphasis on collaboration and creativity, redefines the legacy and significance of heritage clothing today. “This is the mindset behind this project,” chosen designer Francesco Ragazzi remarks, “it's more than a down jacket.” The anniversary series is not only a pivotal moment in fashion history but a preview of the brand’s ever-present interest in innovation, history and evolution. The series not only encapsulates contemporary design today but, in a way, as Ragazzi himself states, “anticipates what's next.”

Moncler Maya 70 is available exclusively at moncler.com