How the Puffer Has Stepped Up to the Fashion Plate

Like the hoodie, which was native to gyms and locker rooms before being appropriated by fashion, the puffer, too, had an earlier and purposeful incarnation: warmth and protection. Soldiers and sportsmen (hunters, skiers, climbers) were using lightweight feathers to line their garments long before Eddie Bauer, an avid fisherman, applied for a patent for his diamond-quilted version in 1936. Just one year later Charles James would design what is considered the first fashion puffer, a curvaceous, boudoir-inspired white satin number padded with the softest eiderdown. According to the curators at the Victoria and Albert Museum, “it became a cult object in the 1970s, linked with voluminous padded coats.”
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Though still worn in the great outdoors, said padded coats became staples of a city wardrobe in the ’80s and ’90s. So, at the same time that the paparazzi were snapping Princess Diana skiing in Austria, musicians were rocking them for street- and stagewear. The more recent trend is for high-priced designer versions of the (unisex) puffer. Though most of these have dual use, and can be worn as active- or ready-to-wear, their main purpose seems to be to convey status. Demna Gvasalia made his debut at Balenciaga today, borrowing silhouettes and shapes favored by the Spanish couturier and applying them to garments from his own street-focused idiom. Today the jean jacket, the anorak, and the ubiquitous puffer got an elevated fashion makeover. The last he gave wings by styling it with a ladylike off-the-shoulder elegance. Needless to say, it is guaranteed to fly out of stores.

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