In case you missed the 500 slides of my Instagram Stories this weekend, I was a little busy—that is, après skiing at J.Crew's slope-side pop-up in Aspen, Colorado, during the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix, one of the final opportunities for 2026 Winter Olympics hopefuls to qualify for this year's games in Italy. The pop-up was hosted on Buttermilk Mountain, just steps from the base of the halfpipe, allowing fans and athletes alike to shop the debut drop from J.Crew's three-year partnership with U.S. Ski & Snowboard, a collection that, I might add, nearly sold out in a matter of hours online. But there was plenty of product to go around on the mountain, making the pop-up all the more desirable for anyone in Aspen with an interest in retro-inspired ski and snowboard apparel, from Fair-Isle sweaters to knit puffers.
The Pop-Up
According to J.Crew's creative director of women’s and children’s design, Olympia Gayot, who designed the brand's first Ski & Snowboard collection alongside its men's creative director, Brendon Babenzien, the process of bringing this partnership to life started the way they always do, by grounding themselves in J.Crew's archives and core brand codes. Then, they shifted their focus to "sport itself," she says, "specifically skiing, the Olympics, and the energy, discipline, and teamwork of elite athletes." Instead of going modern, the designers looked at 1960s ski and alpine culture, referencing old films, catalogues, and early ski communities. "Movies like Downhill Racer with Robert Redford or Charade with Audrey Hepburn, along with early 1970s ski styles, such as sweaters, balaclavas, and cowboy boots, helped define an aesthetic that feels enduring and powerful," she explains. "That sense of tradition and community aligns closely with how we think about American style, which made this partnership feel very natural."
Given that J.Crew's role in the collaboration is as U.S. Ski & Snowboard's official lifestyle apparel partner, Gayot was adamant not to try and get too technical with the collection. Instead, she looked at her own slope-side experience as a Canadian who has been skiing since she was a kid, and the environment surrounding the beloved winter activity, "including how people dress, and how that style translates beyond the mountain." As a result, the pieces in the first drop make for an ideal mountain wardrobe, as evidenced by the numerous instances I personally spotted them at both hotspot restaurants and sporting-related events all around Aspen this weekend. For tips on how to style them all, follow Gayot on Instagram. She's already shown off a multitude of inspiring options for everything from the office to the chalet. "You can wear them with jeans, a belt, and cowboy boots, or layer them under ski gear on the mountain," she tells me. "That flexibility is key—each piece can live throughout the ski season in different ways, and when you pull it out next year, it will still feel timeless, nostalgic, and rooted in heritage."
Styling Inspo
The versatility of the collection isn't the only reason it's selling out like crazy, with commenters under the brand's Instagram posts from this weekend already begging for restocks, despite the collection going live just days ago, on January 8. Its authenticity to ski and snowboard culture is another explanation for its widespread appeal. One athlete that I spoke to at the pop-up, 19-year-old halfpipe skier Izzy Worthington, told me that it reminded her of the old U.S. team gear from the 1990s—gear her dad, 1994 Winter Olympics freestyle skier, Trace Worthington, wore when he competed and passed down to her. "It's super cool seeing that again," she said.
The Campaign
To keep up with the 26-piece collection's vintage aesthetic, J.Crew released a now-viral campaign video, titled "Alpine People," starring athletes to watch from the Stifel U.S. Ski Team and Hydro Flask U.S. Snowboard Team, including free skiers Colby Stevenson and Rell Harwood, freestyle moguls skier Tess Johnson, slope-style snowboarder Hailey Langland, alpine ski racer River Radamus, and Paralympic snowboarder Zach Miller. Each took on a persona, from Harwood's "Après Aficionado" to Stevenson's "The Gear Head." Everything from the voiceover and background music to Harwood's goggle tan lines and, of course, the clothes, had a noticeably retro feel to them, like the short film was shot in the same era Gayot and Babenzien used as inspiration for the collection's designs. The entire campaign was shot in the mountains of Austria, a fitting landscape for some of this generation's most talked-about talents in the world of professional skiing and snowboarding to show off the most talked-about collaboration of 2026 so far.
Keep scrolling to shop what's left of the popular debut collection.
Shop the Collection
