Fashion before function for warm Wanaka brand

I’ve been in the market for some merino leggings for a while, particularly after a freezing January tramp around Waikaremoana, but the trusty old Kathmandu store only has real itchy stuff.

I don’t do itchy. Itchy is soooo 2009. (Tangent alert: Kathmandu is in danger of developing a crippling discount mentality.)

Anyway, I forgot about the merino leggings until I randomly came across a copy of NZ Skier magazine, which sucked me in with its colourful ads for Mons Royale. (I’m a sucker for colour. Total ad victim.)

But the colours are bright and the brand ethos is cutting edge, so I ordered up a pair. (They haven’t arrived yet – and I hope they’re not itchy. As I said, itchy = unpleasant, and passé.)

It’s the first layer brand designed specifically for the “riders” lifestyle. I fear that means “cool snowboarders” and not so much “old-school two plankies”, but you gotta take what you can get.

The idea came from NZ Skier editor/owner and former pro skier Hamish Acland, a Wanaka native who had noticed loads of merino brands following in the footsteps of Icebreaker.

But Mons Royale takes a different tack, and its point of difference is where groovy meets the gravy. Instead of boring old black and a nana-pants look (sorry Icebreaker, but you are a little bit Nana Pants. Warm, but Nana Pants), Mons Royale’s gone for mad colours (purple, green), graphics and a sexy ad campaign. It’s a far cry from your conventional thermal leggings, the sort your Uncle Tarquin favours.

The brand identity is all about premium goods and the lifestyle action-sports market and its line “first on, last off” sounds cheeky but is a reference to layering your clothes. Never mind underwear though – with colours like that you’d be tempted to wear them out on a Friday night. (No? Just me? OK, then. I swear, it's big on the club scene in Norway.)

The brand was born from noticing that thermal underwear is usually just tacked onto the end of a big-brand range, rather than being a brand in its own right – and that base layer garments are usually sold on function, not fashion. (Nana Pants! Nana Pants!)

So the MR stuff is designed to be seen as much as it is hidden away. (Frilly undies outfit Peter Alexander takes the same approach, with bed-wear for outside the bedroom.)

It’s been going for just over a year and is already making inroads in Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Hannah Aubrey of hdesign, also in Wanaka, is behind the campaign. Check out the website here and the ads here – and its Facebook page here.

Don’t you just love a groovy local success story? Now all they need is a store in Auckland …

(Warning: PG content ahead.)

Need a wax? Get thee to an ironing board.