Fresh Tracks
It was like a bad dream.
A few years ago, skiers were coming off the slopes still in their catsuits. Suddenly it was OK to wear a unitard to special events. Now it’s time to wake up and see what happening--again: Snow apparel is back on the streets.
Take snowboarding. The jackets, pants and shoes you see flying past on a hill have been modified for street wear-and-tear. And because these don’t need to keep you ice-free, manufacturers can play with less expensive vinyl and nylon, dropping costs. The price tag for a real snowboard jacket may be $500, while the street interpretation hovers around $100.
Even when it comes in from the cold, snowboard-inspired apparel says action, high-performance and progressive.
“People want to look like they follow athletic sports even if they don’t,” says Sonia Casperian, a designer for Roxy, the kid sister of Costa Mesa-based Quiksilver. The junior girls’ line, available at Nordstrom and most sporting goods stores, features a knockoff of snowboard pants cut from football-jersey fabric.
L.A.-based a Liquid Affair offers rave-inspired shiny fabrics, fat zippers, dangling plastic hooks, goggles and big Mickey Mouse-style gloves. The futuristic clothes are made from iridescent, spongy polyurethane, reflective stripes and rubber patches.
“Snowboarding is not about blending in,” says Atousa, owner and designer of a Liquid Affair. “It’s about being alternative. Hard-core club-goers feel the same way. Snowboarding is fresh. It’s not retro. It’s not played out. It’s just hitting the rest of the world now. And it’s everywhere. It’s an entirely different wardrobe from anything else.”
Its CyberSnow collection is available at Ladies Lounge in Newport Beach, Stateside in Costa Mesa, the Shoe Zoo in Costa Mesa and San Clemente and Diamond Lane, Electric Chair and Zack Attack all in Huntington Beach.
Nice Shoes transformed its snowboard-specific boots into bulbous-toed sneakers (about $55, at On Edge in Newport Beach, the Closet in Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach and Jack’s Surf Boards in Huntington Beach).
And Vans, based in Orange, has a bumper-toed lug sole dubbed the Lumi, which means “snow” in Finnish. Designer Sari Ratsula says: “As snowboarding becomes an important, normal part of young men’s lives, they’ve been increasingly accepting of a shoe that looks like this.”
Vans has stores in Costa Mesa, Fullerton, Huntington Beach and Orange.
Loose nylon overalls and hooded jacket by Verso are cut from glow-in-the-dark vinyl. “We take the more forward man-made fabrics, the newest colors and technical details and play with them,” says Wendy Green, who, with husband Darryl DeWald, operates Verso out of Santa Barbara. The line is available at Chemistry and DNA/In the Jeans, both in Costa Mesa.
Heat-sensitive vinyl that changes color according to body temperature, metal mesh and carbon fiber from bicycle tires are among the materials Verso applied this season. Coming soon: rubber-backed nylon and wools.
“Clothes look more comfy--and they are,” says Roxy’s Casperian. “They have wicking properties. Even when you’re dancing, it’s nice to have on clothes that are going to wick away moisture.”
Adds Green: “There’s such a huge connection between people’s lives and sports. It’s just that sometimes the truly functional garment might not be as fashionable. That’s where we come in.”
