May 26

May 26 The North Face Black Series Mountain Light Coat (2020)

Alex Rakestraw

Lifestyle, Review, Trench

tnf-black-series-futurelight-mountain-light-coat-front-min.jpeg — The North Face Black Series Mountain Light Coat (2020)

I am just an icon living.

The North Face Black Series Mountain Light Coat (2020)

Type: Trench / Use: Lifestyle / Face: Nylon / Insulation: n/a

Technologies: FUTURELIGHT 3L - 140D 228g/m2

Price: $850.00

Here’s the power of priority.

By making consistently good-looking gear, The North Face turned a generic outdoors feature into their own calling card.

How’s that?

The second color in their iconic colorways – the “TNF Black” on that Yellow/Black Nuptse – refers to the black patches on the shoulders. This contrast-nylon yoke is a functional detail that’s standard issue across the industry. But because TNF, dating all the way back to Doug himself, gave the colors, details, and aesthetics of their gear just that much more attention, more people bought more North Face. More people buying more North Face meant more had their first experience with shoulder nylon under the Half Dome. So to more people (and more people), they just became “a North Face feature.”

25 years after a simple waterproof jacket with those industry-standard features released, the black shoulder patches on any waterproof jacket are considered a North Face reference. That’s the power of priority. And on The North Face’s Black Series Mountain Light Coat, their priority becomes the priority.

The results are simply spectacular.

Part of the relaunched Black Series collection, the Mountain Light Coat is a knee-length riff on the iconic 1991 GORE-TEX Mountain Light. Yes, it’s longer in the front – but it’s more than that. Inside and outside, the Mountain Light Coat is a sartorial recut of one of the most famous garments ever produced. Fixtures are brought forward; features are twisted. But it’s more than a simple homage.

First, let’s talk tech.

The Mountain Light Coat is made from giant sheets of TNF’s new waterproof tech, the oh-so-space-age FUTURELIGHT (all caps). FUTURELIGHT consists of an air-permeable, electrospun membrane that – you know what, here’s plain English.

Traditional membranes (GORE, eVent, etc.) are made by taking a big sheet of waterproof material and making tiny holes in it. This is how GORE-TEX was first made, and 50 years later, it still works.

Electrospun membranes (FUTURELIGHT, but also Polartec’s NeoShell and OR’s AscentShell) are made by spinning thin strands of a waterproof material into what amounts to a big web, very dense web. It’s still a sheet of waterproof material. There are still tiny holes in it. But man oh man, the flipped script works.

The standard electrospun membrane is every bit as waterproof as its traditional cousin, but much more breathable. That big electronic web just lets more air out (the technical term: “air permeability”). GORE is waterproof and breathable. Electrospun membranes are waterproof and breathe.

So that’s FUTURELIGHT. Here, the tech is sandwiched between a recycled nylon ristop face and a soft, flannel-like recycled poly lining. Wearing my almost 4’ long szL feels like seclusion. This is a breathable, waterproof cocoon – the kind of coat I just don’t blink at on rainy days. A touch of elastane gives it all a comfortable stretch. Four giant front pockets (plus two on the inside) fit phones and cameras alike.

Functionally, the Mountain Light Coat is a FUTURELIGHT show piece: a billowing, high-tech commuter coat that shrugs off water and blows out sweat. Aesthetically - well, there’s that “priority” bit again.

The Mountain Light Coat is an evolution of the iconic Mountain Light, as imagined by the brand’s high end Black Series line. Beloved details are everywhere: hood straps, D-rings, adjustment cords, and those iconic black body panels. All call back to the OG, with a healthy dose of critical distance affecting their new #fashionable placements.

Past simple fixtures, some jacket-specific features get remixed to fit the longcoat profile. For example, the internal waist cinch is swapped out for a trench-like back puller. Gone too is the 6-button snap front, replaced here by a single full-length double zip. Combined with the unencumbered, elastane-fused FUTURELIGHT, the Mountain Light Coat amounts to a flowing, technical curtain wall with just enough structure to move it from “poncho” to “I can’t believe Jil Sanders did a North Face collab.”

It’s different, different. And in my opinion, it’s a home run.

As a pure statement piece, a full-body North Face flex that lets a hint of pants plus a peek at sneaks just rocks. My go-to rainy day fit is grey chinos, white socks, leather slip-ons, and this large lad on top. I feel like a monk on Tibetan Rumspringa – wrapped in my fabric folds, dry and warm, and with that bright blue-black iconography all over, I’m still fresh as hell. I love the Mountain Light Coat and treasure chances to wear it.

That said: more than with other tech trenches (Goldwin’s Hunting Coat, Aether’s Barrow Jacket), I am super conscious of just when and how often I’m wearing the Mountain Light. In Blue/Black (the only colorway, IMO), this joint is a flashbulb. It’s so stylish, so over-the-top, that it’s almost inappropriate in situations where you’ll have to leave it on.

Walking straight into the office (remember those?) and putting it on a hanger after stunting on untold thousands? Perfect. Keeping it on to mingle (remember that?) around a few new people whose impressions matter? In the words of a close friend: “You look like a wingsuit.”

Styling-wise, the Mountain Light Coat is indeed a home run. I wear it whenever I feel like I can and love the results. That said: this ain’t the run that wins the game. This is something bigger. The Mountain Light Coat is an obnoxious, Steroid-era, front-flip-onto-home-plate blast - the kind that gets its own souvenir cup, even if the team never makes the playoffs.

There’s just one issue.

It only costs $850.

The re-launched Black Series is an impressive effort: TNF gave a team of luxury designers the mandate to reimagine, and reimagine they did. From a glance, it’s obvious that garments like the Mountain Light Coat and 3L Vest represent a fresh, fashion-first elevation of brand DNA. But the thrill of that glance can, disappointingly, fall short.

There’s just enough at the margins to suggest compromises were made, despite all the hubub of a design-first carte blanche. Taping could be neater. Seams could be more precise. Fixtures are, confusingly, plastic instead of metal. These are not choices a design team typically makes. They’re business unit cost-cutting. And here, I just don’t understand why.

The Mountain Light Coat is a luxury fashion statement piece that costs almost $1000. While you don’t want to actually hit that fourth digit, you can do A LOT with the space in between. The Veilance Partition at $950 is a perfect example. It is a gorgeous piece of craft, and most importantly of all, it’s still “almost” $1000.

Luxury technical apparel negates the materials provenance angle of traditional luxury fashion (Italian nylon? Why do I care?). If anything, that places even more focus on construction quality. I’d love to see an updated Mountain Light Coat with superlative construction priced at $950. Or $850 – but hey. I’m a realist.

In summary, by giving aesthetics a bigger seat at the table, The North Face’s Black Series turned the iconic Mountain Light into a high-function, luxury fashion statement piece. I’m blown away by the laser beam looks and impressed by how this drapey, oversized trench makes the brand’s FUTURELIGHT tech really come alive. It’s just missing enough at the margins to make its MSRP feel rich.

The North Face makes design its priority, and the mere existence of the Mountain Light Coat is proof. It’s great as is. But if design got to see that priority the whole way through… the sky’s the limit.