Fashionable ski gear

[Kai]

Thank you very much for the suggestions. Is there anything else I should know? For example, is there a danger in dressing too flashily at a tony ski resort? Are there any colors I should stick to or avoid? And what about accesories like scarves, etc? thanks again.

Wear something functional, without a bunch of useless features. Â The danger of dressing too flashily at a tony ski resort (or any resort) is that you will look like a flashy bling boy. Â Buy a helmet. Â The Giro 9 is about the lightest and most comfortable one on the market. Â Soft shell fabrics (made from stretch woven materials, manufactured mostly by Schoeller and Malden Mills) tend to be more comfortable across a broader temperature range than hard shells (i.e. Goretex.) Â Check out Ibex. Â They have some very functional and nice looking ski gear. Â Their web page still has their Summer stuff, but their soft shell ski pants (not yet shown) are some of the best. Â Some good web sites: Â http://www.ibexwear.com/ibex_home_content6.html http://www.arcteryx.com/ http://www.cloudveil.com/ Oh, almost forgot. If you are really going to go skiing in Europe, and haven't been there before, it's a bit different than skiing in the US. Generally, the environment is less controlled, and you can get yourself in trouble a lot easier than at the resorts in the US. When I ski in Europe, I like to wear a light weight daypack with snacks and water. I've not skiied at St. Moritz, but Chamonix is pretty amazing.

 

[armscye]

The best decision I ever made re skiwear was a one-piece jumpsuit. Looks much sleeker, very warm, always coordinated.

 

[Carlo]

What not to do (from the book of 100 things I have done that you should not try at home).

about 6 years ago Jill decided to cheer me up and get me away from my custody battle with a surprise ski trip. Money was tight - the lawyers were shopping Vail on me at the time so I did not want to go buy a bunch of Ski stuff.

Anyway, I figured I could take some nylon warmups and just spray them to death with scotch-guard's outdoor product which evidently is made with Teflon.

I took to the slopes with surprising ease - turns out that 15 years of hockey gave me the right balance and leg strength so by noon Jill had me on the intermediate trails and then by 3 jokingly said "OK, you have it down, try the black trail now..."

..so like a suicidal moron I jumped and as the sound of Jill screaming "Noooooooooooo........" was fading in my ears I discovered that I was not ready for that incline, hit my tail and started to ACCELERATE on ****** for the next mile or so.

2 Lessons learned:
1. Teflon ass on ice does not stop until tree, rock or building is encountered.
2. Girlfriend's with a deadpan sense of humor and a meanstreak should not be giving you advice about the black trails.

Sidenote: It took Jill 15 minutes to catch up and three years to stop laughing... about when my butt stopped hurting.

 

[DSKent]

I know Prada does a lot of "ski wear", mostly through the Sport line (even though I've heard that there is a whole seperate line of ski wear that's just really impossible to find), and most of the Prada Sport jackets and pants and stuff can be found at any Neimans. Â Come to think of it, though, I think the pants they sell are snowboard pants. Â In any case, I know a lot of the stuff is Goretex and I've really been wanting to buy their 3-in-1 jacket for quite some time. The question that you have to ask yourself, though -- and this is what has kept me from buying that jacket -- is whether or not you're going to look like a moron wearing a hugely-expensive PS ski outfit and not being able to ski Â

 

[Carlo]

CTGUY - if you report that you fell on your arse and slid down the entire side of the Rockies and bruised yourself beyond belief... does that make you a poser or a die-hard?

Hey, I did learn one thing about the lingo... How does a snowboarder introduce himself? "Sorry, Dude"

 

[thc]

I agree that you really want to go for something practical when skiing. Check out the outdoors brands (my personal faves are The North Face and Arcteryx) for good stuff that will last. North Face came out with an awesome jacket called Free Thinker for this season. Salomon and Rossi also make skiwear now too.

Invest in a good pair of ski pants too. Go for the bib style with suspenders. I've used my trusty Killy pants for the past 4 years and they keep my lower body very warm and still provide mobility. Mine even have a Recco rescue beacon sewed into the legs in case I was ever lost on the mountain.

I agree with the other poster. You really don't want to have all this expensive ski wear, particularly the "fashion brands" like Prada Sport, and look like an idiot if you don't know how to ski. Even if you do know what you're doing, you look like--and I'm sorry to say this--a poseur. Even some of the Bogner stuff, though it has a long history in skiwear, looks ridiculous to me.

(Spyder is the brand that the US Olympic Team wears, I believe (not 100% sure on that))

anyway, that's my 2 cents.

 

[GQgeek]

Spyder is the brand that the US Olympic Team wears,

I raced for several years as a teen. Haven't really followed the sport in a long time, but once a year a couple guys from the US national team used to lose to us. This had the effect of increasing our points on the national circuit, but it was really just an event that was organized for fun. Spyder is what they always wore and i don't think that's changed. A word about spyder... I don't know how the stuff looks these days cause i haven't skied in a long time, but i remember a couple things about the brand, which i much preferred over Descente or Schneider(or Scheider? can't remember.. been too long), which were it's too main comptetitors at the high-end of skiwear back in my day as far as i can remember... pheonix or whatever was a new brand back then, so i don't really know much about it. Spyder always looked the best. The racing gear especially looked badass with the spiderweb designs. Performance-wise, i loved spyder because itdidn't look bulky or puffy like descente sometimes did. A spyder suit was very lightweight, usually very thin compared to what other companies offered, and it did it's job marvelously. Really it's amazing how thin their ski suits were compared to other brands, and they still did the job, as well as, or better. We used to train in all kinds of ****** weather and i was always warm and usually not wet (although if it was pouring rain we'd usually wear those plastic ponchos over our ski suits). Really i'm pretty heavily biased towards spyder.. I always loved the stuff and if/when i'm able to start skiing again, it'll be the brand i go back to unless they've totally dropped the ball, which i doubt.

 

[Superskier]

I'd have to go with:

Spyder (Race suits especially)
Descente
Karbon
Phenix
Patagonia (R4.)

Acertyx makes first rate waterproof stuff but it's very expensive. You get what you pay for however.

Bogner 1 piece suits are verboten.