DC has a new luxury outerwear shop, and it’s quite a step up from that pilled North Face fleece you’ve been wearing since college. Originally founded in a French mountain village, Moncler was made first to dress mountaineers. Today, the high-end brand has maintained the mountain aesthetic while designing with urbanites in mind, a mix of performance designs with fashionable silhouettes.
The brand’s European mountain history might help explain why there are polar bears in the windows of their CityCenterDC boutique. The interior of the shop, designed by Gilles & Boissier (a pair who happen to have redesigned possibly the most beautiful apartment I’ve ever seen), has a snowy chateau vibe that’s accessorized with fit-for-a-palace bronze busts. The 2,185 square-foot space is decorated with dark wood paneling and grey marble floors to go with the glass and metal shelving. The shop carries men and women’s apparel and accessories that combines the world of luxury with outerwear in products such as this raccoon-fur hooded parka or this slick leather biker jacket.
The downtown DC location is Moncler’s first Washington storefront, though they currently run boutiques all over the globe. Take a peek inside the boutique below, which is now open at 913 Palmer Alley, NW.
Caroline Cunningham joined Washingtonian in 2014 after moving to the DC area from Cincinnati, where she interned and freelanced for Cincinnati Magazine and worked in content marketing. She currently resides in College Park.
