There is a moment, around 4 PM in Courchevel, when the slopes empty and the terraces fill. The clothes that arrive on those terraces are not, mostly, the clothes that came down the mountain. Après-ski has been a separate wardrobe for at least seventy years — and a barometer of who is in the resort.
The first après uniform was Tyrolean. Through the 1950s and into the 1960s, the well-dressed skier returned to the hotel in knee-length cable-knit, loden coat, and felt hat — the silhouette borrowed wholesale from St Anton and Kitzbühel. Hermès opened a Courchevel boutique in 1959 and sold loden by the metre.
The Moncler Era
It changed in the 1970s. Moncler — then a tiny French outfitter making jackets for the 1968 Grenoble Olympic team — found its way onto the back of every fashionable skier, and onto the cover of Vogue Italia. The puffer was sleeker than the loden, technically warmer, and shouted from a hundred metres. By 1985, a quilted Moncler over a polo neck was the universal Courchevel après uniform.
Then came the brands. Bogner brought a 1980s glamour-ski silhouette — fitted, all-in-one, often metallic. Fendi added fur. Chanel, in the early 2000s, built a pop-up at the Croisette that ran for fifteen consecutive seasons. By the time Dior, Louis Vuitton and Prada each opened a winter store in 1850, the resort had become — quietly — one of Europe’s most-shopped luxury micro-markets.
The Cashmere Counter-Move
The current shift is quieter. Loro Piana opened a flagship on the Croisette in 2014 and rewrote the code: cashmere salopette, undyed wool turtleneck, Stelvio gilet. Brunello Cucinelli followed. The look is plainer, more expensive, and impossible to photograph — which is, partly, the point.
Today three tribes share the terrace. The Moncler-and-mirror-shades crowd at La Folie Douce. The Loro Piana cashmere set at the Cheval Blanc fireplace. And the ski-instructor-uniform purists — Aztech, Toni Sailer, an unironic ESF jacket — who still believe technical clothing belongs at altitude. Each tribe rotates seats by the hour; by 7 PM they have changed again, for dinner.
What Stays
One thing has not moved in seventy years. The first thing every guest still does at 4 PM, on every Palace terrace in Courchevel, is order a vin chaud and unzip the ski boot. The clothes change. The ritual does not.
