Puffer jackets, a superior combination of form and function

Most kids growing up in a cold northern country in the seventies will remember the puffer jackets our mums made us wear. A bulky bright-coloured garment, often with bold contrasting colors and sturdy zipped pockets. It made us warm and safe both physically and mentally as part of our tribes. Trendy, yes but perhaps not all that stylish, at least until the 1990s when the hip hop culture gave the Helly Hansen puffers street cred and Demna Gvsalia’s first collection for Balenciaga in 2016 brought it to the high fashion runway.

J. Lindeberg. Photo: James Cochrane

It started as a survival garment back when the American Eddie Bauer almost froze to death during a trip to Alaska in the 1930s. These days the those water-resistant, ultrapractical “technical” coats lined with down or synthetic down, have become one of the most desirable items in a self-respecting fashion lovers’ winter wardrobe.

“A puffer’s shape and look are powerful, but also plain and almost spartan – and there’s power in riding that line,” says Andrew Luecke, a fashion historian and the co-author of Cool: Style, Sound and Subversion, a history of youth subcultures.

Today it comes in all kinds of shapes and cuts and combines those two opposites in fashion history: stylish and wearable. It was everywhere on the runway of Copenhagen Fashion Week, both as practical and perhaps not so practical outerwear to puffer gowns and accessories.

Stamm. Photo: James Cochrane

According to The Guardian who wrote a long piece on the history of leisure wear earlier, they compared the puffer phenomenon with tracksuits, socialism, and Celine Dion, that if you just wait long enough, something unfashionable will end up being in fashion.