Try a puffer on for style
Jennifer Berry discovers that fashion and function can coexist
Growing up in Montreal, where winter feels like a constant liquid nitrogen drip in your veins, there is but one winter wardrobe priority: function. Sure, I spent at least one ill-advised winter in my teens refusing to wear winter boots (frostbite is a cool way to rebel!), barely avoiding hypothermia while subjecting those around me to my perpetually saltencrusted boot-cut jean hems, but for the most part, I’ve always searched for the warmest and most water-repellent coat and boots my budget would allow. Imagine how my world opened up when I moved to Toronto four years ago and discovered that the Big Smoke is typically at least 5 C warmer than La Belle Ville and gets infinitely less snow. Fashion and function could coexist — who knew?
Well, off-duty models and celebrities, apparently. A peppy array of brightly coloured and liquid-shiny cropped puffers have become street-style essentials at the most recent Paris and New York fashion weeks. Fashion houses like Burberry and Gucci have jaunty checkered and tweed versions on offer while brands like Zadig & Voltaire and Nanushka have played with leather versions. A photo of Kendall Jenner in a bright red version of Aritzia’s Super Puff quickly became a meme.
All of these high fashion puffers have one thing in common: they can’t, under any circumstance, cover the entirety of one’s backside for fear of looking too much like an actual practical winter coat. Nonetheless, at the risk of looking like I stepped out of Missy Elliott’s Work It music video, I decided to take a black vinyl quilted Forever 21 puffer that cost the same as a fancy Toronto brunch for a spin, nay, stroll, in the name of research.