'Yuki' Expedition Parka

Canada Goose is a heritage-aware company that’s known for parkas and coats stuffed with its eponymous down insulation. Polar explorers, South Pole research teams, and Iditarod greats like champion sledder Lance MacKey swear by the Goose brand for its functionality and unmatched warmth. I tested the company’s polar flagship Snow Mantra parka a couple years back and can attest to its claims as a superior cold-weather survival coat. A coyote fur ruff, a built-in neck gaiter, and literal pounds of goose down stuffed in make the Snow Mantra among the warmest winter coats ever made.

This fall, Canada Goose introduced a cousin to the Snow Mantra. But the Yuki Expedition, as the bling coat is called, is a cousin of rare style and urban — not polar — origin and design. The California-based, Japanese-born fashion designer Yuki Matsuda is known for his exclusive Yuketen shoes and Monitaly apparel lines. Canada Goose touts Yuki as having an “eastern sensitivity and a street-funk orientation.” Add in a bit of Inuit influence and you might get something like the Yuki Expedition, which came to market last month.

To keep the Yuki Expedition jacket premium and rare, it will be sold in only 10 stores around the planet. Another step toward preserving its cool and exclusivity, the Yuki Expedition will cost a cool $1,750 USD.

Its details include a thigh-length fit, coyote-fur ruff on the hood, a heavy-duty aluminum zipper, a sheared beaver-fur chin guard, and nickel-color snaps atop a leather trim. Its fabric is a Pendleton wool/tweed mix, and the insulation is 625-fill rated white duck down. There are fleece-lined chest pockets, leather trim accents, and two interior aluminum-zippered security pockets to keep your goods. The company calls it the most deluxe parka in its entire collection.

Two additional Yuki Matsuda-designed pieces will come out this autumn from the company, including a vest (the Yuki Vest, $750) and a Bomber-length parka (the Snorkel Bomber, $1,250). Both come in Pendleton wool and Harris Tweed iterations. I looked at all the Yuki pieces at a preview show this week. I then zipped into the Yuki Expedition and walked up to a mirror for a peek. The Expedition is super flashy and indeed toasty as all get-out. The jacket shares arctic-ready characteristics with coats like the Snow Mantra, including thick down insulation and a fully-ensconcing hood that can withstand true polar gales.

Despite its functionality, Will Steger types are not likely to buy the Yuki Expedition. The market for this kind of coat swings upscale, artist, movie star and urban. Expect to see blinged-out cosmopolites gracing the Yuki look this winter. Hey, it gets cold in Manhattan, too. Moscow, Paris, Zurich, Berlin, Stockholm, and other northerly cities with a glitterati scene are markets for the Yuki. This high-end coat offers an aesthetic for a rare crowd that lives in areas where extreme weather and extreme fashion can sometimes unexpectedly, forcefully collide.

—Stephen Regenold is founder and editor of www.gearjunkie.com.