Moncler Gamme Rouge A/W 2014

This season Moncler Gamme Rouge took a different tack creatively, starting with its show set, which was stripped of its former life-sized ski chair lifts and James Bond-esque action heroes. Like the more reserved set, the clothes also looked different. Giambattista Valli normally brings his couture-like techniques and elaborate constructions to this Milan-based outerwear brand, but this season, he eschewed almost all of the highbrow gloss and instead looked to the street. The outerwear silhouettes were boxy but basic, deflated from their normally voluminous shapes as if pricked by a pin. Lycra leggings, flat slip-on rubber-soled shoes and sweatshirt dresses and jackets gave the looks a decisively sporty air. And although Valli dabbled in rich astrakhan, leather and fox panelling, many of the coats were trimmed in dashed block lines, typically reserved for the street pavement. The overall effect was one of practicality. In fact, the runway at Moncler Gamme Rouge all of a sudden started to look a lot like the real-way. Of course, there were still several items to lose one's head in, like the two-piece camouflage sweat suits crusted entirely in sparkling micro paillettes, or the sweatshirt dress crusted in silver nail-like studding.