Shot unmistakably on Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, this sixth Craig Green collaboration collection with Moncler’s Genius designer supergroup seemed to continue his work on incorporating icons into wearable symbols, only in a lighter, spring-intended context. Intricately-contoured panels evoking life rafts embedded with an overlaid pentimento of house logo outlines were worn like facades. These were framed with protruding, pop-up tentpole-like protrusions that created the impression of facing some cricket-like insect belly up and exoskeleton exposed.
A different suite of looks seemed to refer very explicitly to seafaring, given the sou’wester hats and the technical riff on old-school storm-shouldered oilskins in what looked like treated cottons. In the world of maritime signaling, a distress flag alerting others to the requirement for aid consists of a typically orange background displaying a black square above a black circle; here some of Green’s garment signaled similarly, and in others he flipped the configuration to transmit the opposite. Without chatting to the designer, who was not available, it was tricky to parse the particular message behind these signals.
The release for this collection indicated that there was also plenty in the drop heading for Moncler ports-of-call everywhere that was not featured here, and which would be an easier wear: “parkas, zip-up jackets, quilted jackets and vests, roomy slacks, sweatshirts and T-shirts.” It also stressed sustainability through “zero waste intarsia jackets,” other outerwear pieces in recycled nylon, and organic cotton t-shirts. Based just on these images, this collection reminded me of Green’s spring 2019 Genius collection a little in its flag and sail related structural refitting in order to outfit the physical forms in which we sail, sometimes on choppy waters.
