See Woolrich's Immersive Snow Room and Collaboration with Joshua Vides

The heritage outerwear brand is helping visitors to see the power of its parkas by allowing for testing in a below-zero environment in their SoHo store.

If you've been looking for an immersive experience to ring in winter, you're in luck: Woolrich, the heritage American outerwear brand that pushes the style envelope with artist collaborations and over-the-top store installations, just opened its first US “Snow Room” at its New York City flagship. The installation, conceptualized in collaboration with Italian company Techno Alpin, is the ultimate way to test outerwear, letting you discover just how cozy a Woolrich parka feels in a glass room replete with real snow, ice, trees, and temperatures that plummet to -20 degrees Celsius (-4 in Fahrenheit). Brrrr.

To add more chill factor to the SoHo space, the brand enlisted Joshua Vides to transform the store with his bold, black-and-white graphic art in addition to his instantly collectible capsule of six parkas. The LA-based artist erected the Instagram-friendly Woolrich “holiday house” immersive experience in less than 72 hours.

“We painted it at a warehouse in Brooklyn; everything was pieced apart; imagine a Lego set,” Vides explained. “It happened very quickly. They wanted to bring a lot of energy to open the first snow room in the US.”

DJed by Mia Moretti, the experience's launch event attracted creatives including Maggie Gyllenhaal, JiaJia Fei, and Christina Paik, all of whom joined the brand and Vides for an evening of drinks, light bites, and checking out the new installations. Wearing Woolrich outerwear, the guests had the opportunity to both admire the artistic innovation and find out for themselves how well the garments will protect against the impending New York chill.

Vides’ six Gore-Tex Storm Parkas, all hand-painted at his studio in California, are being sold for $1500 apiece, with the proceeds benefitting The Bowery Mission. “My background is streetwear, so I thought, 'What would I want to wear?' I think some people are going to wear them and some people will frame them.” In an era when collectible streetwear and creative collaborations rule the scene, Vides seems to hit the spirit of the moment on the nose.

The Woolrich Snow Room and Joshua Vides installation are now open to the public at 121 Wooster Street in New York. See the full Joshua Vides x Woolrich parka capsule below.

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