THE JOURNAL
Mr Harry Houdini – heard of him? – wowed crowds at the turn of the 20th century with a series of daring stunts in which he wriggled his way out of handcuffs, straitjackets and even sealed caskets buried deep underground. It was his spirit, one of miraculously escaping apparently hopeless situations, that was invoked by a group of Alpine climbers, among them a young Ms Lotta Giornofelice, back in the early 1990s.
As the story goes, the crew found themselves in difficulty on the cliffs of Pyramide du Tacul near Chamonix, France. Fearing the worst, one of them cried out “Save me, Houdini!” in the hope of summoning the power of the world’s greatest escape artist. The danger subsided and the climbers got away safely but those words lived on, becoming a common refrain among the group and eventually inspiring the name of Giornofelice’s fledgling outdoor brand, Houdini.
Very nearly three decades later, Houdini is now a firmly established and much-loved part of the outdoor scene, creating clothing for intrepid adventurers that’s smart, functional, built to last and designed with the environment in mind. Its latest collection of skiwear, which is available now at MR PORTER, embodies all of those qualities but puts special emphasis on the last.
Designed in accordance with a concept the brand calls “clean performance”, the range is made using recycled materials and is completely free of PFAS, or polyfluoroalkyl substances, a class of chemical compounds which are often used as a waterproofing agent in outdoor clothing.
Not only do these compounds break down extremely slowly, earning them the nickname “the forever chemicals”, but research has shown that exposure to them is linked to harmful effects in humans and animals. Thanks to their widespread use over the course of the last half-century and their persistence in the environment, these PFAS are now everywhere. Scientists have even detected them at the summit of Mount Everest.
While many other brands have pledged to phase out PFAS from their product lines, Houdini was one of the first to eliminate them altogether, something it achieved in 2018. But how did it replicate their performance? It’s all well and good eliminating PFAS from the supply chain but let’s not forget why they became so popular in the first place: they work. And skiwear, especially the sort favoured by off-piste skiers, has a fundamental requirement to provide waterproof protection.
Houdini’s answer is a proprietary system that uses Atmos, a hydrophilic membrane made from recycled polyester, which has been treated with Organotex, a biodegradable and fluorocarbon-free water repellent. The result? The wearer stays dry no matter the conditions – and at no cost to the environment.
Houdini’s outerwear is made to last, too. Increasing the life cycle of the clothes we wear is another important pillar of the brand’s environmental strategy and was inspired by the shocking statistic that the average piece of clothing sold in the Western world is used a mere seven to 10 times before being discarded.
Their answer is not only to design outerwear that is sturdy enough to withstand years of use, but also to change the way we look at clothes by casting age – and the effects it can have on a garment – in a more positive light. In much the same way we might gaze lovingly at a pair of faded and whiskered selvedge jeans or a beaten-up leather jacket, Houdini asks us to admire the patina of a well-worn waterproof. And, when your jacket finally _is_ready to be replaced, it can be sent back to Houdini, who recycle any old skiwear to create fabric for the next generation.
Houdini is rightly revered in the industry for its environmental credentials; after all, there are vanishingly few brands with the conviction to commit themselves so wholeheartedly to the pursuit of a more sustainable future for the industry. But seeing as MR PORTER is a men’s fashion destination, it’d be rude not to mention that these are good-looking clothes, too. But we’ll let the pictures tell that story for you.