Telfar Is Cozying Up to UGG With a New Collaboration

When one door closes, another door opens. So too, do the seasons; as summer began, we were lamenting the cancellation of Gap’s canceled collaboration with designer-of-the-moment Telfar Clemens, a 2020 Glow Up 50 honoree and creator of a logo bag so synonymous with the street-style set that it’s been nicknamed the “Bushwick Birkin.” On Monday, it was that bag, bearing Telfar’s monogram, that no doubt earned him a 2020 CFDA Fashion Award for American Accessories Designer of the Year. And as temps fell and fall loomed by the end of the week, we learned the designer was part of another big-name collaboration, thankyouverymuch—this time, teaming up with UGG.

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If your first image of UGG’s demographic is an early-aughts, pre-’gram, white female millennial influencer rather than an edgy young Black designer with a decidedly genderless approach to fashion, you wouldn’t be alone—which is perhaps why Telfar is such a score to expand the cozy-chic image of the 42-year-old brand. In a promotional spot released Thursday, he does just that, starring in a quarantine-themed spot that makes the idea of staying at home this season even more appealing.

“Telfar is exceptional; a true pioneer and visionary and one of the first designers to believe that being unapologetically yourself is sexy,” said Andrea O’Donnell, president of fashion lifestyle for Deckers Brands, in a statement obtained by Harper’s Bazaar. “At UGG, we believe in the same thing, and that fashion can be real, democratic and aspirational all at the same time. This collection will be the perfect expression of our shared beliefs.”

The UGG x Telfar collection won’t drop until 2021 but when it does, don’t call it a capsule, as Bazaar reports the collab will likely be an ongoing business partnership. Clemens explains that, much like his longtime affinity for the Gap brand identity, the groundwork for a partnership with UGG had actually been laid over the past decade.

“I find UGG really sexy—a soft kind of rugged,” said Clemens. “I have made unofficial, unauthorized UGG boots in two shows already dating back to 2010. So, I’ve always been obsessed a certain kind of ubiquity and when something really unique ends up on everybody. What I want to do is get down to the DNA of UGG and see what genes we have in common. To get down to the core of that feeling.”