I wonder if there's much international appetite for The North Face Purple Label anymore. Don't get me wrong: the Japanese North Face spin-off label is perpetually aspirational, what with its excellent styling and prep-meets-trek take on timeless TNF staples. Still, I've been wondering if TNFPL's time in the limelight has passed, at least for now.
I'd obviously like The North Face Purple Label (that's a mouthful, BTW) to stick around forever either way, of course.
TNFPL Fall/Winter 2023 again sees creative director Eiichiro Homma in complete command of the Japanese North Face spin-off, demonstrating a mastery of aspirationally effortless styling, approachable shapes, and unassuming clothes infused with cutting-edge tech.
Perhaps because FW23 is especially low-key, though — check out the images: though the puffers, trousers, and bags are as good as ever, they don't really demand analysis — I find my mind wandering to the big picture.
That is, I have a feeling that TNFPL's unassuming clothes may perhaps be too unassuming to break through today's social media-driven noise, especially now that the GORPcore revival has splintered into a plethora of curatorial Instagram pages and disparate Discord channels.
Four years ago, folks wanted The North Face Purple Label so badly that Goldwin, the company that owns the rights to operate and sell The North Face in Japan, experimented with selling TNFPL internationally. The licensing headache must've been too much to bear, because TNFPL returned to being a Japan-only proposition after only a year or two.
Even the North Face Purple Label collaboration masterminded by Palace, the British streetwear label, was only sold within Japan, presumably due to that licensing snag.
Before consumers allowed IG accounts to do all their clothing research for them, The North Face Purple Label was a not-so-best-kept secret widely discussed on fashion-focused message boards.
Users presented the excellent TNFPL lookbooks as exemplary inspiration and discussed methods to obtain TNFPL's Japan-only drops. Some of them even realized that a few Japanese stores would ship internationally of their own volition, sidestepping third-party proxy services.
Point is, The North Face Purple Label was the stuff of dreams in certain streetwear circles.
What with the deluge of stuff available today, informed by big-name labels and micro-designers alike, plus the aforementioned inclination among even the most fastidious outdoor fashion obsessives to allow others to guide their interests by way of curated feeds, I don't know that The North Face Purple Label's patient approach makes enough of a splash anymore. Or, at least, at this point in time.
Certainly, TNFPL's styling and product is so good that almost anyone can appreciate it and, certainly, there are folks interested in classy The North Face classics — in fact, The North Face Purple Label's interpretations of '90s-era TNF gear could make it a good fit for the grunge era-fascinated TikTok set.
But because the TNFPL is so understated, somewhat unavailable and challenging to come by, it's not gonna tap into mass appeal.
Obviously, neither Goldwin nor Homma care about that. The North Face Purple Label is still popular and well-represented in Japan and that's all that matters to them.
As a fan, I'll keep on keeping up with it too, and who knows? Maybe the zeitgeist will circle back around to showing TNFPL the love it deserves.
The North Face Purple Label isn't for everyone, intentionally, but it also kinda is.
