Moncler is putting four models from its archives back into circulation, from 15 October. The oldest, the Karakorum*, dates from 1954 and was designed for two men setting out for K2. Seventy-two years later, what has changed is first of all the material.*
In 1954, Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli reached the summit of K2 during the Italian expedition. The House of Moncler states that it created the Karakorum to equip them. Originally, it was a raw-cotton parka insulated with down. The 2026 version is cut from a glossy ten-denier micro-ripstop, with an enveloping volume. The fabric has changed category, from expedition cotton to a fine, lustrous fibre.
The working design, for its part, is kept. The jacket retains its front closure with double snap fasteners, its removable hood and its drawcord. It also keeps its inner shoulder straps, which allow it to be worn on the back like a bag, and its large chest pocket. These details served a precise situation: a jacket that is taken off, tightened, loaded onto the shoulders when the body heats up. They remain in place even though the fabric has been replaced. For men, the Karakorum is offered in black, red and petrol blue; for women, in black and violet.
Around it, three other models return. The Verone, born in the 1980s, was adopted by the Milanese Paninari. It comes in matte micro-cotton, with a retractable hood. The Himalaya, which appeared in 2009, descends, according to the House, from the equipment supplied to Lionel Terray for his first ascent of Makalu. The Tibb vest, from the 1980s, is offered in tubular quilting, in reversible recycled Longue Saison or in wool gabardine. For the first time, the Re/Icons collection extends to complete looks: windbreakers, T-shirts, trousers, skirts.
The link with the mountains also comes through small objects. Inside the jackets, a label reproduces the photograph of K2 taken by Vittorio Sella in June 1909. The metal logos on the pockets are inspired by souvenir pins brought back from the Alps. A reconstruction of the Karakorum also appears in Bianco, a film by Daniele Vicari in which Alessandro Borghi plays Walter Bonatti, expected in Italian cinemas in 2027.
This article rests on the characteristics declared by the House: no piece has been tried on. The judgement therefore concerns what can be established from a distance, namely what the reissue keeps of the original and what it replaces. From 1954, the Karakorum keeps what is adjusted by hand: snaps, cord, straps. It changes what is woven.
Vittorio Sella, K2, June 1909. The photograph, now a label sewn inside, dates from forty-five years before the ascent by Compagnoni and Lacedelli.
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