Moncler

Moncler was founded in 1952 in the French Alpine village of Monestier-de-Clermont — the name is a contraction of the village name — by René Ramillon and André Vincent as a manufacturer of quilted sleeping bags and rugged ski clothing. The brand's down jackets became standard issue for the 1954 Italian K2 expedition and the 1955 French Makalu expedition, and Moncler became the technical outerwear of choice for French and Italian Olympic ski teams through the 1960s. The brand faded in the 1990s and was on the verge of bankruptcy when Italian entrepreneur Remo Ruffini acquired it in 2003 and engineered one of the most remarkable luxury turnarounds of the 21st century. Ruffini repositioned Moncler from a technical brand into a status outerwear house, kept the high-altitude DNA legible, expanded into ready-to-wear, and launched the Moncler Genius programme in 2018 — a rotating capsule platform with designers like Pierpaolo Piccioli, Simone Rocha, Craig Green, Hiroshi Fujiwara, Rick Owens, JW Anderson, Palm Angels, and many more. Moncler is listed on the Milan Stock Exchange; the company acquired Stone Island in 2020. Ruffini remains CEO, chairman, and creative steward. Few brands have been salvaged so completely from near-failure into a top-tier luxury operator — and few have managed to keep technical and fashion legitimacy in such balance.