The North Face's Streetwear Past, Present & Future Is Reborn Under a Red Box (EXCLUSIVE)
The North Face means a lot of things to a lot of people. The North Face Red Box is a means to framing it all at once, with an eye towards grounded dailywear.
TNF Red Box is a new imprint from the nearly 60-year-old outdoor company that hybridizes its past and future with garments resolutely grounded in the here and now, shredding gendered design cues and infusing old-school street-savvy shapes with new-school tech.
"Red Box represents a memory, a familiarity, and a connection point to our relationship with culture," says David Whetstone, Creative Director and Product Creation Leader for The North Face's Global Collaborations and Energy department. "Internally, we saw Red Box as more than a product collection, but a concept that can redefine how The North Face shows up in the lifestyle space."
That means imminently an wearable wardrobe comprised of mix 'n match staples loosened and lightened, freely melding into a cohesive collection of seasonless tees, sweats, and typically technical outerwear.
"When you see people wearing vintage The North Face, there’s an energy, an attitude, that comes through those silhouettes," says Whetstone. "Red Box takes the performance benefits that come from today’s innovations, and balances those solutions with the attitude of the past. We really pushed fit. We wanted to create a stance."
Some Red Box items are all-new, "inspired by a memory of the past," as Whetstone says. Others are direct references to archival The North Face pieces, like the half-zip fleece.
Others still are a sort of middle ground, like the Red Box down jacket that strips the inimitable TNF Nuptse puffer of its baffles — the internal lining chambers that typically store insulation, like feathers — and is instead lined by an airy ripstop borrowed from the TNF Advanced Mountain Kit collection first released several years ago. And the fluid, boxy T-shirts? Straight out of the '90s.
"The Red Box logo first appeared on catalogue covers in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, a time when The North Face first crossed over to contemporary culture," Whetstone notes.
The ensuing collection, available from several of The North Face's many stockists, is thus a mutable manifestation of the company's many codes.
Weatherproofing comes by way of sealed seams and waterproof linings, utility is enforced by lightweight insulation and packable applications, and a sense of effortless stylishness — well, that's just quintessential TNF.
"We work fluidly and begin every project with a fitting that considers a mix of vintage and modern silhouettes, only referencing The North Face archive, past, present, and future," Whetstone says. "Ultimately, there is always a balance. When we push construction, there’s always a nod back to our DNA with details from the past.
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