Puffer Coats Are Officially Available in Evening Gown Form

At some point, every fashion-minded person will be tasked with the seemingly impossible: figuring out how to make a puffer coat look cute. Puffer coats—appreciated for their practical coziness and little else—bring tons to the table in terms of function, but almost nothing in terms of form. They’re bulky, limiting and pretty damn awkward, rendering their wearer some comfy-yet-reluctant equivalent of the Michelin Man.

Moncler saw this timeless catch-22 and decided this was the season to challenge it.

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Moncler’s Winter 2018 collection is basically an extended exploration of the puffer coat. The brand has created embellished, cinched-waist puffer coats; floor-grazing puffer coats; bright blue puffer coat maxi-capes and even puffer coat gloves (which, by the way, are so popular that they’ve already sold out at Barney’s).

Moncler didn’t stop there, however—the brand also took the standard puffer coat and turned it into a straight-up evening gown, available in shades of bubblegum pink and royal blue for a mere $2,710.

Barney’s New York.

1 Moncler Pierpaolo Piccioli Down-Quilted Long Puffer Dress, $2,710 at Barney’s New York

Barney’s New York.

1 Moncler Pierpaolo Piccioli Down-Quilted Long Puffer Dress, $2,710 at Barney’s New York

The most fascinating thing about this isn’t that puffer coat evening gowns exist (which is veritably shocking in and of itself). It’s that people are wearing them. Over the weekend, style star Monica Almada was spotted sporting the blue Moncler puffer coat evening gown on the streets of New York City.

This is the puffer coat evening gown’s world now, and we’re just living in it.

Source: Instagram

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A quick question, though: When it’s particularly cold out, should one layer a puffer coat over their puffer coat dress, or let the puffer coat dress do all the warming work? Almado went sans jacket, but on winter’s coldest days, no dress—no matter how puffy—should suffice on its own, right? I mean, the thing is sleeveless.

Perhaps the answer lies in thoughtful styling: the puffer coat evening gown paired with Moncler’s matching puffer coat gloves? Or maybe maximalism is the answer: the puffer coat evening gown paired with Moncler’s matching puffer coat gloves and layered under one of Moncler’s other trendy puffer coats—and maybe even topped off with one of those puffer coat scarves that have entered the zeitgeist as of late.

Though questions abound, one thing is clear: Whether or not we were ready for it, the puffer coat evening gown has officially arrived.