Zipped inside the new down-filled Moncore jacket from luxury outerwear brand Moncler, I’m already ready for summer to end. Within seconds, I’m also ready for a fall hike, or an early winter rain, or the brunt of a snowstorm. That’s because the Moncore jacket is also a base layer for an innovative three-piece outerwear system, including a field jacket, parka, and poncho.
Designed in collaboration with former lead Apple designer Jony Ive’s LoveFrom studio, each piece in the system slips over the base layer and almost automatically snaps onto it, thanks to the magnetic “duo button” LoveFrom spent four years developing. The modular outerwear system is the second collection co-designed by LoveFrom and Moncler, and it’s a playful ode to the fashion house’s connection to New York.
The collection is being released at Moncler’s new flagship store, which just opened in Manhattan, overlooking Central Park.
Those in the market for thousand-dollar outerwear may see some similarities with the first Lovefrom and Moncler collection, which launched in fall 2024 as a similarly modular system. This new collection expands on its core idea of using a single piece of fabric to make up the bulk of each garment, and having multiple shells that attach to a single core. Unlike the pastel shades from the first collection, this new collaboration comes in a matte khaki tone that can be accented with any of eight included patches, each featuring New York-inspired images and the two design houses’ mascots: Moncler’s cartoon duck, Monduck, and LoveFrom’s cartoon bear, Montgomery.
In an exclusive interview with Fast Company, Ive says the collaboration with Moncler started not with a specific style in mind, but with a concept.
“I’ve always been interested in the way that you can add value by taking away. And so this idea of starting with a very wide bolt of fabric and essentially making the garments from one piece, that was an incredibly ambitious approach and goal that we set ourselves,” Ive says. “To do something truly simple is extremely hard.”
“When Jony first explained to me the project, I thought it was super fascinating,” Moncler CEO Remo Ruffini adds. “Even if industrial design and fashion design are two different approaches, I’ve always thought good design is good design.”
Ive says LoveFrom’s work with Moncler deliberately blurs the lines of design, approaching the collection as a one-off problem to solve, using any means necessary. “Whether you’re designing glasses or headphones or a phone, the challenges are so uniquely different. And so I refuse to accept the traditional delineation between different disciplines,” Ive says.
That comes through in the collection, even beyond the silhouettes and seams of the garments. LoveFrom’s design team—which includes industrial designers, typographers, architects, animators, and user interface designers—approached the collection from a variety of angles.
In addition to the themed patches featuring the two brands’ mascots, they also designed custom animations featuring the two characters, a set of postcards that accompany the collection, packaging that plays up the collection’s New York connection, comic-strip-style illustrated washing instructions on the interior of each garment and, uniquely, a set of folding paper models that show how each garment was cut and folded from a single piece of fabric.
Going far beyond the brief has been a hallmark of LoveFrom and Moncler’s collaboration, which Ive and Ruffini say comes from more of a personal affinity than any business imperative. That means there’s no clear timeline for a next LoveFrom Moncler collection, but both Ruffini and Ive seem keen on keeping the partnership alive in whatever form that may take.
“We’re not collaborating because we have this goal in mind. We’re collaborating because we want to work together,” Ive says. “This is such a precious relationship because there is no agenda.”