How to nail The North Face street style

Ever wondered how a mountain-mastering brand became an icon of street style? Take a look at where The North Face got its streetwear reputation from and how it’s styled today.

Is The North Face streetwear?

An icon of the mountain ascent, The North Face has maintained a reputation for quality among the professional climbing community, while steadily growing its appeal as a streetwear brand since the 90s: first as a hip hop style favourite and later through key collaborations.

The North Face first took hold as a streetwear brand in New York, when it became a signature look of New York rap and hip hop artists and their fans. With a silhouette you can instantly recognise, bright colour options and guaranteed warmth on bitter New York street nights, the fashionable and functional appeal of this dress code is no coincidence. Its association with the New York rap scene and later, UK grime, also gave The North Face the gritty image it needed to earn a position as a respected and authentic streetwear brand.

The North Face continued to build this profile through luxury streetwear label collaborations, including a 13-year-long relationship with popular utility brand Supreme. The 2020 Supreme x The North Face collaboration features an artsy pink-camo water-resistant cargo jacket. The North Face has also collaborated with ultra-cool street label Bape, which has proven a standout favourite among the stylish hip hop set, including Cardi B and Pharell.

The past 5 years has seen The North Face team up with countless labels but every one of these partnerships offers one clearcut thing: quality, signature streetwear. 

Is The North Face fashionable?

The North Face is considered fashionable due to the brand featuring consistently in The New York Times, Vogue and GQ over the years. Demand for The North Face fashion hasn’t withered over the years either, among genuine outdoors enthusiasts or the brand’s trend-conscious urbanite audience.

In fact, the popularity of certain items, from the classic Nuptse jacket to limited edition collaborative pieces, has lasted not just seasons - but decades. 

The vast uptake of products such as The North Face pocket fleece has even driven copycat looks from fast fashion brands, eager to get in on the most recent impulse for outdoor gear, which has seen brands like The North Face prove popular again.

The reputation of iconic North Face products has also been boosted greatly over the years by being advertised on the backs of the supercool, most recently music megastar Rihanna and US model Hailey Baldwin Bieber.

Both have been spotted in The North Face gear as part of their celebrity downtime style: Rihanna, throwing either a statement longline navy puffer or short caramel Nuptse jacket over casual jeans and a t-shirt; and Hailey Bieber, using the classic camo puffer with jeans to dress down stilettos.

Why is The North Face so popular?

The North Face is so popular because of the brand’s association with affluent lifestyles and activities, such as skiing, while its links to street style have made The North Face clothing more fashionable and adaptable as everyday wear, too. 

The secret to its lasting popularity seems to be the trusted quality and down-to-earth profile of The North Face products, which make them the ultimate “non-showy” statement. However, The North Face achieves regular limelight status through adapting this look, applying eye-catching colours and designs, “dropping” luxury label collaborations, and exciting the public with reinventions without losing its core style.

Something unlikely that The North Face has also managed to achieve over the years is universal appreciation. Traditionally an extreme outdoors brand, The North Face carries an impressive association with sports that test the limits of physical endurance, while the brand’s fashion has managed to take on uniform-like status in rap, hip hop, grime and pop culture, giving it the edge and exposure it needs to maintain mass appeal as a streetwear icon.

Of course, being a brand that regularly captures the eye of world-famous music artists, actors and models - and the camera lenses pointing at them - doesn’t do The North Face’s reputation any harm either.