The first snow fall here in NYC has truly awoken the Christmas spirit around the city. On Sunday, Central Park was packed with people enjoying the beautiful winter scenes, the quiet and peace of a snow-scape, and of course, the childish fun of a snowy hill. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen so many happy people having so much fun as the hill around 77th St Sunday afternoon. From small children to grown adults, flying bodies covered the slope non stop, some in more control of their descent than others, many crashing into onlookers or various stationary objects littered along the base of the hill. I was thinking about how ski clothing has changed over the years and about an article I read in a skiing magazine on the plane going to Tahoe a few years ago. Unfortunately I can’t find it online, but the gist of it was that up until the last few decades, ski wear was fashionable, nicely tailored, more stylish than functional. But with the advent of Gore-Tex, Under Armour, etc., ski wear has turned into big ugly puffy coats and pants that are all the way over on the functional side, forgetting the fashionable side. I’ve been doing some searches on the nets and found some interesting things about the history of ski wear.

Skiing rose in popularity in the early parts of the 1900s, really taking hold in the 1920s. Back then, ski wear was composed of heavy materials like knitted wool and tweed to provide warmth and flexibility. The outfits were tailored and generally matching colors and patterns. Woman originally wore skirts with heavy leggings until it became acceptable for them to wear pants like men. This was the style more or less until the 50s and 60s when fabric technology advanced and things like nylon took over. You can see from these classic ads that style and flair was just as important in early ski suits as warmth. Reflective of the daily culture and fashion of the first half of the century, these stylish ski suits didn’t leave behind your sense of style when hitting the slopes.

By the 70s synthetic fabrics had all but replaced wool, leaving us with some real gems. This colorful plastic suit trend lasted through the striped Olympic suit phase of the 80s and 90s.

So ski wear went the way of the suit and tie in the 80s and 90s, form fading in place of function, comfort over style, leading to today’s world of big puffy coats and Gore-tex pants. I want to be warm and dry on the slopes like the next guy, but definitely miss the class that used to come with dressing for snow. The late 90s and early 2000s saw some interesting design with the snowboarder culture, but that was more about just adding different patterns to the same poofy coats.

Perhaps the revival of men’s fashion will affect the slopes as well as the streets.

Footnote: Much of the information and pictures above came from here and here. Thanks!