Go Glamping!

As we start to gear up for the inevitable change of season, down jackets and baselayers, I wanted to look back at some major outdoor-inspired movements that made a serious impact on my summertime “trend radar”.

The term “Glamping” made its debut in pop-culture on urbandictionary.com all the way back in 2007. Believe it or not, I hadn’t actually heard the term used seriously until this spring. As the popularity of the outdoor music festival hit an all time high, hipsters, bobos and fauxhemians from Palm Springs to Glastonbury adopted a new way of vacationing know as “Glamping”. Glamping is basically bougie, occasionally thematic camping, in well-groomed, user-friendly environments. I know that this makes little to no sense to the average outdoor purist, but what it does mean, is that there is an entirely new audience of young, switched-on consumers, that are looking to burn cash on quirky outdoor gear and accessories.

In Tokyo, where festivals like the The Greenroom and Fuji Rock cater to an audience that ranges from urban climbing enthusiasts to “weekend warriors”. Outdoor gear stalwarts like The Northface are updating their outdoor collections to include street-inspired looks like the button-front Mountain Windshirt, as well as colorful ponchos. Coleman has also collaborated with Tower Records on a range of festival items including chairs, packs and even a limited edition Pentax DSLR.

Focusing on style as well as function, companies like eco-conscious Anorak, want “customers to treat their outdoor space as their living room” with the company's playful products and prints, while San Francisco-based Alite's innovative two-legged Monarch chair won design accolades and camping fans alike. Merging technical innovation and convenient details, user-friendly sleeping bags come with padded slippers and strategically placed zippers for those midnight runs to the outhouse.

Fast fashion connoisseurs, H&M, have also entered the outdoor sector with a fresh and bold festival collection featuring tribal-print chairs and animal motif tents. “This is the third Fashion Against AIDS campaign, with 25% of the sales donated to youth HIV/AIDS awareness projects. The collection for both guys and girls will encompass the whole festival experience, from clothes and accessories through to tents and sleeping bags, all the while raising funds to promote the message of safe sex.”

At Coachella, as well at festivals like Vintage at Goodwood (the first annual music and fashion celebration of creative British cool from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s & 80s) You can book a posh camping site, a yurt on an “Indian reservation” or a good ole’ fashioned geodesic dome! Don’t forget, each glamping experience comes complete chefs cooking you breakfast with organic produce. UK brand Millets even goes so far as to offer a custom “Bestival” experience where you can buy your gear online and pick it up on-site at the festival of your choosing. Now that’s what I call customer service.