I know cold. I was raised in Duluth, Minnesota, my entire bloodline is Swedish, and for winter fun at recess in elementary school my friends and I would taunt each other by playing the infamous touch-the-tongue-to-the-flagpole game. The only thing I know better than cold is how to keep myself as warm as I can while playing in the cold, which is why I love down.
Isis Seven Sisters down jacket
Isis Seven Sisters down jacketMost down is of the utilitarian variety: It feels great but makes you look like a giant marshmallow. I had given up on the notion of down as fashion statement until I found Isis’s new Seven Sisters Jacket. If Milan were the latitude of Stockholm, this flashy outerwear would be walking runways.
First, the color: My Seven Sisters is the hue of a perfectly ripened apricot yet glossed with a slightly metallic finish. Wrap yourself in this wrap and you quite literally glow. Added bonus: If apricot doesn’t work against your complexion, the Seven Sisters also comes in three other equally luscious shades: Bluegrass, Plum, and Wave.
Second, the fit: Unlike down parkas of the past, most of which were designed by climber dudes who were long on functional vision but short on form, the Seven Sisters is curvaceous, tightening at the waist and flaring at the hips, making you feel like a svelte model rather than a descendent of the Michelin Man.
In addition to form and fit, this down jacket has all the functional bells and whistles that make the difference between life and death while sitting out a blizzard on a lonely stretch of Minnesota highway: a high, velvet-lined collar to keep your neck and face warm, internal zip pockets for important items like matches, a specially designed cell-phone pocket, and, most important, velvet-lined pockets to keep your hands toasty. The Seven Sisters is so functional it could easily withstand the most brutal of frozen backcountry forays. Then again, why bother with all that misery when you’ll look dynamite in any city where the snow flies? $180; 866-875-8689, .