Reese Cooper Outdoor Supply Is a New Sub-Label From the LA Designer With a Sporty, Youthful Vibe | Vogue

Reese Cooper launched his namesake label when he was just 18 and brought his distinct, youthful vision of highly-detailed workwear from Los Angeles to Paris before he had turned 20. Soon after, in 2019, he was named first runner-up by the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund and made it onto the Paris Fashion Week calendar as an American who produced nearly everything in America right down to the zippers. He returned post-pandemic in June 2022 with an irrefutably cool runway show at the Jardin des Plantes that involved a capsule with Levi’s; the denim behemoth even let Reese Cooper Industries turn their tab dark green. And he hasn’t been back since.

A look from the collection.

A look from the collection.

That doesn’t mean Cooper pressed pause—far from it. In parallel to feeding his brand with fresh wares minus the fanfare, he also began developing a concept that has been three years in the making, rendering his compelling design language, only more accessible. In an exclusive with Vogue, he explains in realest terms that he wants to reconcile the issue that his peers and pals are often priced out of his California-made clothes. “I can’t afford my own stuff and don’t have a single friend who can,” he says. That, and the fact that the seven-figure spend on a Paris catwalk wasn’t feasible season after season. “That show almost completely bankrupted me.”

On Friday, he will debut what he is calling his sister line, Reese Cooper Outdoor Supply or RCOS, as the branding makes clear. The vibe remains youthful while the design puts emphasis on utility; there are light technical jackets that pack into cross-body bags; two-tone fleece pieces; oversized cargos and technical parkas covered in a photo print of tree bark with RCOS repeatedly carved into the surface; and light shells in translucent nylon ripstop and base layers in soothing hues of gradient green and washed lilac.

The fall 2024 campaign.

Pacsun, the mall-friendly, mass retailer where teens have flocked for surf and sport-leaning apparel, is manufacturing and distributing the line across its stores, but Cooper’s clout has also drawn the likes of SSENSE, Nordstrom, Selfridges, Backcountry, and Notre in Chicago.

The process, he recalls, was a learning curve for both parties. “I really appreciate them taking a chance; they don’t make this kind of product,” he says. “I wanted to put the maximum amount of function in that I could.” Hence what he calls the “easter eggs” which include 3D-zipper pulls in the shape of rocks; his signature hooks, only now in tone-on-tone colors; custom eyelets and heat-sealed drawstrings; proper taped seams and removable skirt for snowboarding jackets. Of the 72 items so far, the pricing does not exceed $400.

A look from the collection.

A look from the collection.

The branding, conceived by Playlab, the multi-disciplinary, L.A-based creative studio known for its imaginative installations and activations for Off-White and OTW by Vans, gives the line an instantly recognizable touch. RCOS appears as a kind of ink-drawn logo, the letters arranged like a cube for the outside logo patches. Until today, Cooper has been teasing the release mainly by depicting the logo in water, sand, seaweed, and rocks—a refreshing approach that is more human, less Helvetica. Inside the garments, meanwhile, woven labels will feature printed landscapes to indicate the seasons.

Cooper says this level of detail is only possible because Pacsun can produce at scale (most of the apparel is made in China except for the more technical pieces that are made in Vietnam). But he says this is not about a “quick cash play” for him; simply that it opens up the possibilities for his audience and for his business. “It’s going to unlock a lot of things, hopefully,” he says.

Having mined the intersection of workwear and streetwear, Cooper’s leisure focus through RCOS seems in line with his own lifestyle. For the campaign, he and his girlfriend, the designer Juliet Johnstone, rounded up six friends and went on a road trip up to the Oregon coast. The images, shot by Stefan Kohli, are at once cinematic and entirely chill, with the looks captured against the backdrop of Lassen Volcanic National Park or a coppery mineral pit discovered by chance. “We were just driving down dirt roads until we found something interesting,” he notes.

The fall 2024 campaign.

It takes no stretch of the imagination to project the looks in any urban context—perhaps even more so than some of the abstract tailoring and engineered garments he explored in his mainline. So how different are they? “I think it’s impossible for me to actually get separate; I have one brain,” he replies with a laugh. “And a lot of this is stuff I wanted to make in the first place and just never really had the opportunity.”

This weekend, Cooper will host a pop-up installation in LA’s Arts District as part of the RCOS launch. In this gallery setting, the campaign images will be printed on fabric. The rollout here is deliberately different. “My metric right now, I don’t want to do another runway show until I have opened a store. It’s more impactful to have a home base, to build up some kind of real thing.

As we speak over video, the Olympics are playing out in Paris and we muse about the next summer games taking place on his home turf. The idea of some kind of RCOS athletes’ kit is not that far-fetched. “I don’t know [who to] call, but I need to start that,” Cooper says, as though thinking in real time. In any case, he has four years to make it happen.