Aimé Leon Dore's Second North Face Capsule Is Built to Layer, Down to the Snap-In Fleece

Aimé Leon Dore and The North Face released their FW26 capsule collection on Thursday, September 17 at 11 a.m. ET, on aimeleondore.com and at ALD's flagship stores. ALD announced it on its own site the day before and calls this the second installment of the partnership; two days before that it had posted a film for the collaboration, just over two minutes long, with no release details attached. ALD's store list covers New York, London and Los Angeles. By Thursday evening three of the 43 listings had sold out: the Baltoro Jacket, the Borealis Backpack and the $65 nylon cap.

Aimé Leon Dore

At launch ALD's store listed 30 styles, or 43 listings with each colorway counted separately, running from $60 DOTKNIT liner gloves to a $1,250 GORE-TEX trench coat. Outerwear carries the collection. The GORE-TEX 2000 Mountain Jacket ($650, in Summit Navy or TNF Red) is a three-layer GORE-TEX shell with fully seam-sealed construction. The Reversible Pertex Nuptse ($695, in Frost Grey or Summit Gold) turns from a CLOUD DOWN side to a nylon ripstop side and is filled with 700-fill recycled down. The Baltoro Jacket ($750) is an olive puffer with sheepskin leather at the yoke and elbows, and the Ballistic Tech Vest ($575), which ALD says is based on the original RTG vest, carries a two-liter HydraPak bladder in a back compartment.

Aimé Leon Dore

The rest is built to go with that outerwear, sometimes literally. The '95 Denali Half-Zip Fleece Pullover ($395, in three colors) and the Nylon Denali Jacket ($395) both have cuff tabs that snap into the Mountain Jacket. The DOTKNIT wool quarter-zip ($250) and the DOTKNIT liner gloves are each designed to go under something else or to work on their own in milder weather. Around them: GORE-TEX pants ($495) with full tear-away side seams, fleece and nylon Denali pants ($295 each), six headwear styles from a $65 nylon cap to a $130 leather-brim five-panel, a 71-liter Base Camp Duffel ($275), a 25-liter Borealis backpack ($225) and a $250 packable fleece blanket that can be worn as a poncho. A hiking shoe and a mule are the only footwear.

Aimé Leon Dore

This is year two. ALD introduced the first collection in a post dated September 17, 2025, and it went on sale two days later, on September 19, on ALD's site and at its flagship stores, with The North Face launching it at a Hong Kong store the same day. The North Face's page for that release lays out a collection built on materials: a Nuptse in Italian Casentino wool, a Denali jacket redone entirely in nylon, a Borealis backpack in ballistic nylon, a Base Camp tote reworked in leather and a Firefighter Jacket. David Whetstone, The North Face's director of global collaborations and energy, said then that the partnership inspired the brand "to reimagine iconic The North Face pieces originally born on the mountain."

Side by side, the two rounds put the weight in different places. Year one was mostly about materials, with The North Face's classics remade in Casentino wool, leather and ballistic nylon. Year two brings a few pieces back (the nylon Denali jacket and pant return at last year's $395 and $295), but most of the new work goes into technical construction: three-layer GORE-TEX across a trench, a shell, pants and a cap, a reversible Nuptse, WINDWALL nylon, a hydration vest and fleece that snaps into a shell. ALD's hand still shows in the Baltoro's sheepskin yoke, the Fair Isle knits and the leather-brim cap. Even the announcement reuses last year's line about pairing ALD's design and storytelling with The North Face's outdoor products, changing the part that called it a limited edition collection. The difference is in the clothes: this time the two brands built a kit meant to be worn together, from the liner gloves out to the shell.