Flying from Milan to London and back again, I am often lucky enough to get a sunlit view of the Alps from above. A dazzling white vista of jagged perfection—with Switzerland’s glorious incisors at its heart—these mountains are the ultimate cosmic Hollywood smile.
This Bally collection looked back to a 1955 logo of an Alpine peak to take inspiration for the zigzag motif that ran through shoes, clothing, and accessories. It was there on the peppily colored Alpinist-inspired technicalwear for men and women that often came accented with the rustic: edelweiss-embroidered lace, crocheted detailing, Swiss crosses, the Schweizerische Herzstiftung, vintage map prints, and faux-naif pixelated-in-knit illustrations of jolly skiers. It was there in the fringing on some iterations of the house’s new semicircle Harriet bag, designed to be worn cross-body. And it was there right down to the contra-colored fringing details—sometimes complemented with a bonus fringe of long-haired cowhide—on the Vibram-soled, archive-inspired climbing boots.
Apparently, Bally’s ratio of womenswear revenue to men’s has tilted from 1:4 to 2:3 in the past four years, and there was ammunition here to push that balance further toward parity in the vintage Everest motif sweaters, the cowled colored shearlings, and the mountain flower jacquard piuminos. And yet there was an avalanche of awesome in the menswear, too: A track-cut pair of olive green pants in outrageously thin leather and various primary-colored ski jackets in the same material had especially covetable momentum.
Some of the retro logos and quirky colorways on show did whisper of a passing diversion to Patagonia. On the whole, however, Bally’s hard lean into its national codes seems to have set it on a sweet Swiss roll.
