In New York, Moncler’s Largest Flagship Yet Reaches New Heights
Gilles & Boissier channel the French Alps and Manhattan’s grandeur inside the dazzling new Fifth Avenue destination, complete with ambitious art and the label’s first bespoke atelier
Moncler’s story began high in the French Alps, in the remote village of Monestier-de-Clermont, where entrepreneurs René Ramillon and André Vincent established the company in 1952 to outfit mountain dwellers with quilted sleeping bags and tents. Nearly 75 years later, after its glossy down jackets became coveted status symbols, the Milan-based company now helmed by Italian businessman Remo Ruffini has planted its most ambitious flag yet in decidedly urban terrain: a sprawling new flagship on New York’s prestigious Fifth Avenue.
The opening caps a relationship with New York that Moncler has been cultivating for decades. Just beforehand, the company transformed Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall into an open-air retrospective called “New York in Moncler,” on view through September 13, where large-scale photographs chronicle two decades the label’s most unforgettable happenings in the city. They include 100 Moncler Grenoble–clad models scaling scaffolding at Chelsea Piers, dancers transforming Grand Central into an impromptu runway, skaters circling Wollman Rink to a live orchestra, and Annie Leibovitz photographing model Simon Howell atop the Chrysler Building.
Now that rich history boasts a permanent address. Located steps from Central Park within the General Motors Building at 767 Fifth Avenue, a landmark property previously home to beloved toy store FAO Schwarz, the glamorous new flagship perhaps stands as the pinnacle of the label’s fruitful long-term collaboration with French interiors studio Gilles & Boissier. The husband-and-wife founders, Patrick Gilles and Dorothée Boissier, have helped realize Moncler’s pristine retail interiors worldwide since Ruffini took the helm in 2003, ultimately spearheading an impressive 250 boutiques. The partnership has also reached into Ruffini’s sumptuous residences in Marrakech and Milan.
“Our collaboration with Moncler has been built on a shared vision and a mutual understanding of what luxury can be: emotional, timeless, and deeply connected to place,” explain Gilles and Boissier, who, like Moncler, share ties to New York that run nearly as deep as their French origins. The duo’s earliest projects there include the cavernous Buddakan in the Meatpacking District and the Baccarat Hotel opposite MoMA, while more recent commissions include two previous Moncler boutiques and a richly appointed showroom apartment at One High Line. “The Fifth Avenue flagship is a crescendo of our decades of work together,” they continue.
At 23,680 square feet across two levels, the Fifth Avenue flagship indeed ranks as Moncler’s most spacious and daring outpost yet. Gilles & Boissier approached its extraordinary scale by wielding their sophisticated sleight of hand to dramatically juxtapose the label’s unique Alpine origins with Manhattan’s soaring verticality. Inky granite slabs frame the glass facade, its dark mineral surface threaded with integrated LED strips inspired by Times Square’s electric glow. Ceilings rise a soaring 26 feet above a checkerboard floor that alternates raw and polished stone.
The initial grandeur gradually gives way to intimate design gestures emblematic of Gilles & Boissier’s finest interiors. The ground floor progresses through enfiladed rooms devoted to men’s, women’s, children’s, and footwear collections. Antique oak boiserie warms the men’s areas against black granite floors and columns, while white gypsum paneling lends the women’s rooms a distinctly French flair. Carefully proportioned moldings and cabinetry frame the apparel with the obsessively ordered air of a collector’s library. Upstairs, the vibe turns more residential and culminates in a private VIP suite conceived in the spirit of a classic Parisian apartment.
That elegant progression also makes room for ample theatrical flourishes. A grand staircase sweeps upward behind a rippling metal balustrade amid mirrored surfaces and illuminated textured glass. Art, meanwhile, appears throughout with museum-like abundance. Dutch sculptor Mathieu Naab contributed monumental charred-wood screens and custom furnishings whose rough-hewn surfaces evoke mountainous terrain. On the Madison Avenue side, a towering Ugo Rondinone sculpture stacks a trio of massive stones into a vertiginous totem. Additional interventions include a gypsum canvas by Paul Bik, wood tables by Jean-Guillaume Mathiaut, and imposing bronzed vases and torsos by French workshop Atelier Promothee, the main suppliers of Versailles.
The generous square footage allows Moncler to assemble its various lines under one roof. The ground floor showcases Moncler Collection alongside co-creations from Moncler Genius and the latest footwear, while the entire second story belongs to Moncler Grenoble. The latter offers a wardrobe fit for intrepid mountaineers, from technical skiwear and goggles to plush après-ski pieces and lightweight hiking layers, joined by Moncler Grenoble editions of skis, helmets, and snowboards developed with Olympic gold medalist Shaun White. Also available is the second LoveFrom, Moncler collection, a modular outerwear system conceived with Jony Ive. The opening also marks the debut of Moncler to Measure, a bespoke atelier offering four outerwear silhouettes that can be customized in cashmere flannel, silk, suede, shearling, and fil coupé.
Ruffini describes the flagship as “a living space” intended to absorb the energy and exhilaration of New York. “It meets the communities and the people who make this city so unique,” he muses. “That’s the true meaning of this project. It’s not simply the opening of Moncler’s largest flagship store in the world, it’s also about being part of the life of the people in this city, those who live it, those who pass through, and those who come to be inspired by it.”