The Tech Scene Sparked a Trend that Even New Yorkers Follow

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

The fashion industry downplays the local tech scene's contribution to fashion trends, but the Bay Are's laid-back style is decidedly influential in the rise of normcore. "The captains of industry [in San Francisco] aren't wearing suits," menswear designer Patrik Ervell tells Lauren Sherman and the WSJ. "They're wearing fleeces half the time." The designer then used this inspiration to make his own version of the classic Patagonia fleece from "high-pile Schulte mohair, a material often used to make teddy bears," the publication reports.

Patrik Ervell isn't the only designer riffing off the Patagonia trend. Altuzarra, Louis Vuitton, and Baja East are just a few more brands with their own iterations—the latter's is made of French terry and lambskin and retails for $2,795. Lauren goes on to detail how she and others style their own NYC looks with their Patagonia outerwear. It may be a stretch to say that SF started the Patagonia trend when most of us remember wearing fleeces—whether Patagonia, Columbia, or North Face—in high school on both coasts, but the humble jacket's ascent to fashion staple surely owes some credit to the startup guy's no-fuss closet. So let's just mark this one down as a win for local fashion.
· Why Fashion Insiders Are Buzzing About Patagonia [The Wall Street Journal]
· Betabrand Makes Silicon Valley Style a Thing [Racked SF]