The North Face’s Mountain Jacket didn’t set out to become an icon. Like most things built to last, it was engineered with less ego. But in 1985 climbers needed a jacket that could take a beating, shrug off the weather, and still function under a harness. The result was a two-tone shell with a high neck and a certain square-jawed utility – no fuss, all function. It became a staple of serious expeditions, then something funny happened: people started wearing it off the mountain.
By the time it had survived Everest, the Mountain Jacket had already slipped into other territories – sidewalks, record stores, the kind of bars where Gore-Tex seems both ironic and exactly right. Supreme got hold of it in 2010 and, in one of its earliest outerwear collaborations, introduced it to a new generation of city-bound explorers. Later came the MM6 Margiela rework, a sculptural circle silhouette that rendered the jacket suddenly avant-garde. The artist and designer Brian Donnelly, professionally known as Kaws, put his fingerprints on it. The brand and retailer Invincible printed old expedition photos across it. Somehow, the jacket held its shape through it all.
Now, four decades on, The North Face has released a new collection in honour of the Mountain Jacket’s 40th birthday. Less a reissue and more a kind of rearticulation – one that stays true to the original intent while asking what performance, protection, and permanence look like in 2025.
The three new jackets cover different ground. A technical achievement in itself, the DryVent Mono Mountain Jacket ($500) is made entirely from one recyclable material, designed with both longevity and end-of-life in mind. The Gore-Tex version ($750) delivers on the brand’s alpine roots: all storm flaps and pit zips, built for serious conditions. The Women’s DryVent Mono Short Jacket ($450), meanwhile, reads as urban — cropped, sharp, wearable with a leather boot or a snow boot, depending on the day.
What ties them together is less the look – though the signature colour-blocked yoke and minimalist silhouette remain – and more the purpose. They’re jackets made to be used. Even if that use is now as likely to include a morning coffee run as it is an alpine traverse.
The campaign leans into this expanded terrain. Griff, the 23-year-old British singer-songwriter whose debut album “Vertigo” earned critical acclaim last year, fronts the collection. She’s joined by team athletes Dennis Ranalter and Blake Paul, lending the project both creative and technical credibility. “Just like music, it’s just as important to me to express myself through fashion and the clothes I wear,” Griff says. “Being a part of this global campaign has been amazing.” It’s a neat alignment: self-expression meets survival gear.
But if the 2025 collection gestures toward the future, it also quietly acknowledges the past. There’s a timeline here, woven through the seams – a history of pockets shifting to accommodate harnesses (1987), modular systems developed on Everest (also 1987), stylistic tweaks in 1990 to move the whole thing forward. And then, of course, the collaborations – each one a creative side quest that the Mountain Jacket experienced without losing itself. Proving that it’s weatherproof in more ways than one.
