Snow Business

The creative head of Moncler’s most technical lines on the challenges of designing alpine activewear.

- LYNETTE KOH

For several years now, the popularity of athleisure has been escalating. According to Allied Market Research, this segment is expected to be worth some US$547 billion (S$737.5 billion) by 2024. With more people seeking comfort and functionality as they work from home, athleisure’s stock has risen further.

Although it might seem like a recent phenomenon, fashionable performance gear has been a long time in the making. Just ask Sandro Mandrino, head designer for Moncler Grenoble – the brand’s high performance skiwear line – since its launch in 2010. He is also the designer for 3 Moncler Grenoble, which fuses fashion-forward aesthetics with technical performance, and is part of Moncler’s ongoing Genius project, which sees the brand producing capsule collections in collaboration with top designers such as Pierpaolo Piccioli of Valentino and JW Anderson.

Mandrino has been focusing on luxury sportswear way before Moncler Grenoble began. Via e-mail, the Italian designer shares that he “started focusing my career on sporty collections in 1996 with Prada Sport”. He has also overseen sportswear for Tod’s and workwear-inspired brand Fay and helmed the menswear divisions at Dolce&Gabbana as well as Gucci. Following the recent launch of his graffitiinspired 3 Moncler Grenoble collection, Mandrino tells us about pushing the boundaries of fashion and form – and how luxury sportswear has morphed over the decades.