Palace raids Avirex's flight jacket archive

Streetwear collaborations usually trade on logos. The capsule Palace has built with Avirex trades on a silhouette — specifically the A-2, the leather flight jacket that made the New York outfitter a fixture in hip-hop wardrobes long before either brand was a collector's category.

The jacket anchors the collection. It is cut in rich pebbled leather with a boxy, '00s-inspired shape, dressed in new graphic logos, leather appliques, and patches, and fitted with oversized external and internal pockets. Around it sits the rest of the range: tracksuits in black and blue with gray paneling, a zipped hooded sweatshirt, long- and short-sleeve T-shirts, plus accessories including a snapback and a no-cuff beanie.

The release schedule follows Palace's usual staging, which is itself part of the product. The capsule went live Friday, September 18 at 11 a.m. local time online and in stores, with Japan, Australia and New Zealand, Hong Kong, and South Korea following Saturday, September 19 at 11 a.m. local. Scarcity by time zone is a mechanic Palace has run for years, and it keeps a weekly drop feeling like an event rather than a restock.

What makes the pairing work is period alignment. Avirex's equity is in military-issue outerwear that got adopted by street culture; Palace's is in a skate sensibility that treats '90s and early-'00s sportswear as source material rather than costume. Put the two together and nothing has to be explained — the boxy leather does the talking, and the tracksuits keep the price ladder accessible for anyone who is not spending jacket money.

For Avirex, a brand more often rediscovered than marketed, the deal is the efficient kind of relevance: one season inside a label whose audience already shops the archive it came from.

Kyle Duford, Founder & Editor, BRNDWIRE. More from Kyle →