Vintage Grails With the Craziest Ghost Designers

The low-key outerwear brand worth hunting down.

One of the hardest things about digging for vintage designer and luxury gear is the amount of licensed goods that got made in the 1980s and 1990s. As menswear brands like Giorgio Armani and Ralph Lauren began to take off, luxury brands like Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent sought to get in on the action.

In addition to launching their first menswear lines, many of them also sought the quick and easy route of licensing their names to existing suit manufacturers, who would put out ready-made product in custom fabrics with different labels. This is also why you’ll still find some old Ralph Lauren suits branded with cheaper sub-lines like “Lauren By Ralph Lauren.”

That practice didn’t just extend to suiting, but also other categories like outerwear. On the flipside, certain outerwear companies were also starting to see the potential in courting up-and-coming fashion designers, wanting to get more relevance in the space, sought their talents and brought them on as consultants.