Haider Ackermann's Canada Goose Asks, "Why So Serious?" (EXCLUSIVE)
I'm supposed to be chatting with Haider Ackermann about his new Canada Goose collection but I can't take my eyes off a photo pinned to the mirror behind him. It's Robert De Niro clad in field jacket and sunglasses, portraying Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. I expect left-of-center design cues from Ackermann but this, not so much. I am compelled to ask, simply, "Why Taxi Driver?"
"I've always been obsessed with this movie," Ackermann says nonchalantly. "The acting, the style, everything. Always. This picture travels with me. Don't ask me why," he laughs.
Ackermann is nothing if not himself. We're talking about the far-ranging design influences for the summery second collection of Snow Goose, his sporty-luxe Canada Goose line, available on Canada Goose's website.
The attitude of Taxi Driver, sure, but also the mythic blue rose of German writer Novalis, for whom an unattainable flower bespoke impossible desire.
"Perhaps nothing with me is controlled," Ackermann muses. "I like functional piece to be unfunctional. I like to disrupt them." A man of contrasts, Ackermann recalls wearing a silk robe while trekking through Utah with a pack of fashion insiders testing out his new Canada Goose gear. "The clash makes it more interesting and more intriguing and more playful," he says. "I do believe that we need to play a little bit nowadays."
And Ackermann's second Snow Goose capsule offers plenty of play, mostly by way of trail gear that dares to dabble. "I was like, 'Obviously, no one's gonna wear [these little shorts],'" Ackermann recalls of that Utah trek. "But they all found a playfulness into it and all differently. It can be attractive, desirable, seductive. Sexy. You can play with it."
These clothes aren't merely good but keys for freeing the wearer's personal style, a factor that Ackermann finds endlessly appealing. "There is a very selfish approach from my side, in that I'm observing everything," he says. "It's so fascinating how people make it their own. There's so much more to do than parkas and a perfect jacket. I said to the team, 'Let's put some beauty into this.'"
The collection is overtly functional, of course, what with its featherweight nylons and many-pocketed cargo pants in Ackermann's preferred carrot cut, but the breezy vibe is especially key. These are useful clothes to be worn as you'd like, enacting the joy of dressing. And a summer collection from Canada Goose, of all brands!
"It's just a question of making everything light," says Ackermann. "And at the end of the day, the world is quite heavy. The world is so serious. To have some light clothes is not that bad at all."
And why not the ultimate piece of light clothing, the scarf? It's as intertwined with Ackermann's everyday dress as aviators in Bickle's and cravats for Novalis (or whatever 18th century aristocrats wore).
"Scarves were part of my childhood, [something you wore] to protect yourself from the sun and the wind. It had purpose. It was protection," Ackermann says, making the obvious parallels to Canada Goose.
"As a child, I didn't know that the job of 'designer' existed, but I know that I was totally absorbed, obsessed with those fabrics blowing in the wind. There's nothing more beautiful than fabrics blowing into the wind."
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