The North Face and Gucci go to Iceland

A second chapter, set in Iceland

At the end of December 2021, Gucci and The North Face release the second chapter of their collaboration, a year after the first.¹ The collection becomes available on gucci.com on 27 December, and pop-ups in winter destinations follow from 11 to 25 January 2022.^1,2 Alessandro Michele directs the campaign, photographed and filmed in Iceland by the French twins Jalan and Jibril Durimel.³

Gucci describes the imagery in the language of the outdoors: "In stills and video, this territory's otherworldly spirit and its unique landscapes feature intrepid explorers pictured against the Nordic island's vast and breath-taking scenic backdrop."² The pictures show explorers in the collection's outerwear on volcanic black sand, green hills and glacial ice.¹

Explorers standing still

The campaign images are built around stillness. In the photographs released with the collection, a model in a long camel down coat with a North Face patch, red hiking boots and a Gucci bag stands on a frozen shore holding a bunch of wild flowers; another, in a GG-monogram down jacket over green trousers, stands on rocks at the edge of a glacier lagoon, also carrying flowers.² The pose is closer to a portrait than to an action shot. Nobody climbs or hikes in these frames. The explorers have arrived.

The film adds movement and sound. 10 Magazine describes hikers crossing "volcanic black sand and over electric green hills wearing their '90s North Face in technicolour Gucci archival prints", "exploring Iceland to the sounds of Moby".⁴ The colour of the clothes, green, orange and yellow among the neutrals, is set against ground that has almost none.²

The flowers are the fashion gesture in the picture. No expedition catalogue would send an explorer onto the ice with a bouquet, and that is exactly the note the luxury partner adds. The equipment, by contrast, belongs to The North Face: down coats, hiking boots, packs. The image holds both brands in one frame without either giving way, with the outdoor brand supplying the landscape and the gear, and the luxury house supplying the gesture.

Iceland also moves the campaign onto harder terrain than the Alps of the first chapter, with black sand and glacial ice in place of meadows. Gucci frames the collection as one that "once again draws from values of self-discovery and self-expression that define both brands".² The word "both" matters: the campaign presents exploration as a value the two houses share, not as a costume one borrows from the other.

The 1990s enter the collaboration

The product widens the archive the partnership draws on. FashionNetwork reports a collection of more than 130 pieces, with outerwear "applied to remastered styles from the '70s" alongside "reimagined styles from The North Face iconic '90s attire, decorated with colorful prints", while the classic GG monogram runs all over bombers and vests.³ 10 Magazine likewise describes the campaign's hikers in "their '90s North Face in technicolour Gucci archival prints".⁴

Bringing in the 1990s brings in a different North Face. The 1970s stand for the outfitter of tents, packs and early expeditions. The 1990s are the decade in which the brand's down jackets entered city wardrobes. Dressing silhouettes from that decade in Gucci's archival prints connects the luxury partner to the period in which The North Face's street meaning formed.

Sustainability details continue from the first chapter. The collection uses ECONYL regenerated nylon, down certified to the Responsible Down Standard, and packaging from sustainably sourced paper and cardboard.¹

The North Face's own stores

Distribution shifts the balance between the two brands. Alongside gucci.com and Gucci pop-ups on Fifth Avenue in New York, in Aspen and in Chicago, a selection of the collection is sold in The North Face stores in New York, Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo.⁵ A pop-up also opens at Toronto Bloor.³

For The North Face, that detail changes what the collaboration does for the brand. Selling a selection through its own stores brings the luxury collaboration into The North Face's shops, where it stands next to its regular range. The partnership now also reaches The North Face's own customers in its own shops.

Chapter Two also confirms the arrangement as a series rather than a single event. A collaboration that returns with new settings, new decades and new channels behaves more like an ongoing line than a one-off, and each chapter adds to the shared story both brands can draw on. For The North Face, the second chapter keeps the campaign on outdoor ground and the product in its own stores, which keeps the outdoor brand at the centre even inside a luxury partnership.