Swiss luxury goods house Bally kicked off a year-long celebration to mark the 60th anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Everest with a tented display of a new collection last Monday at London Fashion Week.

 

To mark the historic event, accessories such as bags and boots were on show ahead of the full capsule collection, including ready to wear, being launched during Milan Fashion Week this coming weekend.

 

Bally has a strong connection to the 1953 Everest expedition; when sherpa Tenzing Norgay got to the top of the world on 29 May, 1953, alongside Sir Edmund Hillary, he was wearing Bally Reindeer-Himalaya boots.

 

Sixty years on, Bally has brought that connection to life by using items from the original Everest expeditions as the inspiration for a new collection.

 

Bally first designed mountaineering boots in the 1940s for the Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research and its footwear was provided to various Swiss expeditions. The boot worn by Tenzing was originally designed for climbing to a height of almost 7,000m.

 

Key in the new Everest capsule collection are three men’s boots (pictured below) based on traditional trekking and alpine styles. Each is constructed with a lightweight, injection-moulded lug sole that combines comfort and performance with the re-engineered ‘360 Degree Non-Slip Bally Grip’, first patented by Bally in 1919. Double-stitch Norwegian construction is a hallmark of the boots.

 

 

The Vilmos boot is the centrepiece, inspired by Tenzing’s reindeer trekking boot and now recreated in marmot fur lined with warm cashmere. Bally located the German manufacturer of the hook lace-up system used on the original boots and it has been reproduced for the Vilmos.

 

Pricing has not yet been finalised but is expected to start at $450, Bally Global PR Manager Silvia Pavan tells TRBusiness.com. The Everest Capsule Collection will be presented only in selected DF&TR stores says Bally’s travel retail department and, while there will be mobile pop-up tent exhibitions in selected boutiques and department stores worldwide, it is too early to say whether airports will be part of the promotion.

 

The collection’s most iconic pieces will appear in some stores on the 60th anniversary date (29 May) but the complete collection will not be available until September 2013.