JAY-Z might have sold Rocawear, his first clothing line, over a decade ago but he’s still got the bug for designing great clothes. In partnership with Moncler, JAY-Z’s multi-faceted entertainment agency, Roc Nation has released a wintery capsule collection designed by the Brooklyn-born mogul himself.
The result is a surprisingly fashion-forward and imminently wearable collection of puffer jackets, shirts, pants, and one very cool fuzzy bucket hat. As if Hov would design a collection lacking a bucket hat — come on now.
Neither Moncler's elegant reputation nor JAY-Z's sense of style were ever in question, of course. They both epitomize good taste, you know this.
But that a Roc Nation collaboration designed by Hov himself wouldn't be merely nice but would instead be one of Moncler's best-looking collaborations to date, both in terms of product and editorial eye? A welcome revelation indeed.
Remember that JAY-Z and Roc Nation are following in the stylish footsteps of past Moncler collaborators like Valentino, Craig Green, Rick Owens, Pharrell, sacai, and all the rest. JAY-Z may be a business, man, but he might've missed his calling focusing full-time on clothing design.
The stand-out pieces from Roc Nation x Moncler — surprise, surprise — are the jackets, hands down. One showstopping puffer wears an embossed croc print and sculpted, almost spherical shape that gently interrupts the wearer's form.
Casually shifted proportions are key. One puffer vest hits just below the hip and flips from nylon to leather, with not one but two sets of front pockets. A knit short-sleeved jersey top is boxy and wide, hitting just above a pair of matching sweatshorts. A reversible shearling coaches jacket epitomizes streetwise luxury.
And then there's the thigh-length fleece coat made transcendent by glittering rear embellishment that spells out the collaborators' names and "It’s not rocket science." It isn't! It's simply beautiful.
JAY-Z opted for a color palette that feels very New York City gone fashion with its deep neutral tones of khaki, black, creamy whites, a little orange here and there for flavor.
It also feels so-very Moncler by maintaining that luxury Italian throughline with the visible sense of craft.
This technically isn't the first Roc Nation x Moncler team-up. The collaborators first partnered in 2023 as part of the outerwear brand’s Genius Platform, devising an interactive event at London Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2023.
There, guests were asked to get into listening pods to record a communal song, dubbed Art of All.
Playing off that theme, Roc Nation's Moncler collection, releasing on January 24, is accompanied by a short film soundtracked by music from the JAY-Z-produced film Book of Clarence and narrated by rapper and producer SAINt JHN, a mentee of Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder Kareem “Biggs” Burke.
The video's theme is all about genius being everywhere and thus the visuals feature suitably sweeping shots of majestic mountains and outdoor scenes swooshing into shots of Marcy and Park Avenues in Brooklyn, where JAY grew up, into Manhattan’s skyline and back to nature again.
Collectively it makes for a powerful image, made even more powerful by the proposition of rocking a JAY-Z-designed Moncler bucket hat in 2024.
