The Wasatch Back (2025)

Après for Us: Packing Notes and Guidance for Sundance

A second year of my Sundance Film Festival Packing List.

Seen just on the edge of the frame is my large water container. It’s not uncommon to have two, or even three beverages going at once in the mobile office.

Flying over the baked, empty deserts that stretch out around Utah, it’s amazing the Mormons found anything in Utah at all. They then dug irrigation canals and basically terraformed it for the rest of us before it became a state.

I put together this guide each year because I’ve seen very little useful information online about what menswear types might want to wear to a snowy film festival. Even the Sundance Catalog (from the clothing company started by Robert Redford in 1989), seems to have stopped offering menswear completely. So here I go again.

Here I Go Again, Whitesnake, c. 1987.

Professional photography of celebrities at the film festival in their “Park City looks” is useless for novitiates who are trying to pack a bag. The reality is that celebrities have a very different version of the festival and dress accordingly. They are stepping out of a black Escalade and directly into their panel/screening/party, and then stepping back into that car when the agenda item is done. I’ve seen celebrity-style looks on regular attendees, struggling through the snow and freezing in a queue in loafers and stilettos, their C-beams glittering in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate, and it’s all pitiable. It’s important to at least look warm.

If you’re on a panel, the sky is the limit. In fairness, Boots Riley also dresses like this all the time.

Normal attendees need to dress a bit more ruggedly, because you’re out in the elements and trudging from venue to venue. While you should stack your schedule with confirmed event RSVPs before you get to Park City, even the most prepared calendarist will end up waiting in line for something. You’ll then find yourself standing around in ten degree weather (-12C) for forty-five minutes (the event is either oversubsrcibed and accepted too many RSVPs, or you’re waiting for your friend/colleague/person-you-met-yesterday who has the actual invitation to come and admit their +6ish).

Standing on line, c. 2018.

So what do I bring and why? For menswear styling clues, you could look to brands like Wythe, RRL and then a little bit of Rowing Blazers.

For my approach, it’s also the old Slim Aarons photos, the ones in snow.

Lech Ice Bar, Slim Aarons, c. 1960 (Photo by Slim Aarons/Hulton Archive/Getty Images). Dress well and then just add one fun element.

There’s also no snow sports on the agenda for me this year which means I can skip real snow gear and jam everything into one carry on-sized bag. Each piece needs to pull its weight.

The Garrett Leight X Rimowa collaboration in white polycarbonate (sourced from eBay).

For the hardworking industry people (they do exist), there’s an additional element. Utility is king (and secondary to fashion expression). I remember running into one fellow entertainment attorney at the festival a few years ago who was wearing a multi-pocketed technical vest, full of spare mobile phone battery chargers (!). It was tactical gear, but for dealmaking. I loved it.

Finally, a negative pickup deal to surpass Metal Gear.

For my part, I have the multi-pocket thing going on and usually also have a tote bag with me (for collecting big dumb cups and other free stuff) and some of those chemically-induced-magic hand warmers in my coat pockets (a freezing queue is no problem if your hands are warm).

The mood of the festival varies. This year, the invitation is to come sit on the edge of a whirring media event horizon to witness the dying paroxysms of the film industry. Or it’s actually the “year of the auteur,” heralding the triumphant commercial return of smaller, more interesting films (and greater returns for their suffering makers). Only the media prognosticators know. Nobody knows.

The Blind Leading the Blind, Peter Bruegel the Elder, c. 1558

But lo! There will be partying, even if it’s restrained.

Signs of the times at the St. Regis. I was not here whenever the thing happened that necessitated the creation of this sign.

The opening of Marquis, an improbably placed music venue on Main Street, has also heralded the arrival of the DJs and their promoters. If the industry people are somewhat bashful about straight up partying (given the current climate of, gestures, well everything), the promoters and ancillary live events businesses have crept in stealthily to meet the demand.

And there will be big dumb hats. Also big dumb glasses. And models from Revolve. And then the People of TAO. Main Street is closed to vehicles this year, but the human traffic continue more or less the same.

Magical. Visionary. Empath. Aura readings never lie. I did set my family up for life with free mugs from this brand activation though.

So those are some of the vicissitudes awaiting festival goers. Back to menswear, which is a more sure thing.

Here’s a look I put together the first year I attended the festival. My dad’s fur lined double breasted car coat from 1970s New York (he’s from California, he was just doing Skunk Works stuff there and had to buy a real coat), a patterned scarf, Garrett Leight clips ons, and then a red hat for warmth (with some kind of ski pin on it, can’t remember what). I’ve stuck with some variant of this look ever since.

Getting snowed on, c. 2018.

And here’s today. Thus of Ould, Thus Now.

Deer Valley, c. 2025. Ambient temperature: 23 degrees (-5C). I also usually wear a larger, more cavalry-style mustache from Thanksgiving through Sundance, but this year I thought it would be funny to have the same mustache as all the younger guys who work up on the mountain (and my younger brother, who looks like all of the guys who work up on the mountain).

This theme for this year is a continued one of restraint. Four pairs of trousers, three sweaters, three jackets. One scarf, one knit cap, one pair of boots, one belt. Some of the crazier accessories I’ve worn in years past (e.g., a Filson water fowling cap) have been left at home.

Here’s a small gallery, some internet finds and we’re out.

Friday (pictured above and below): Camel hair polo coat, vintage Brooks Brothers (90s) from eBay; cashmere watch cap (Permanent Style x Berg & Co); navy cashmere scarf (Permanent Style x Johnston’s of Elgin); navy Todd Snyder cashmere crew neck sweater; ecru and navy Breton striped shirt (Todd Snyder); brown J. McLaughlin cords, polo belt (Sid Mashburn), lug soled ankle boots (Thursday Boot Co). It’s a lot of cashmere.

Trimmed to protect the privacy of colleagues and clients.

Saturday: Winter white full legged trousers (of course this is the only day t snowed so there’s lots of risky slush and mud about); Sid Mashburn raglan sleeve cashmere crew; loop wheel white t-shirt (The Armoury); cashmere watch cap (Permanent Style x Berg & Co); grey cashmere scarf (Permanent Style x Johnston’s of Elgin); polo belt (Sid Mashburn), lug soled ankle boots (Thursday Boot Co).

Sunday: Canadian tuxedo. Western Snap Shirt, Suede Jacket, Todd Snyder Jeans (or a dark blue pair of J. McLaughlin cords if I take the cowards way out).

Edit: Canadian tux it is!

Après for us.

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Internet Bycatch

Gems from the bottom of a glacial fissure.

Beyond the Great South Wall: The Secret of the Antarctic, by Frank Savile, illustrated by Robert L. Mason, c. 1901.

• If you haven’t seen Cercle’s series of music performances on YouTube, it could be worth a look. The simple premise (electronic artists playing longer sets in gorgeous locations) will keep you hooked. Here’s a set played at Chamonix 5 years ago.

• An incredible conversation pit (and the rest of the house is okay too), via NYT.

  

• A video from The Armoury’s YouTube channel talking about dressing for colder weather. I love see what they are liking/thinking about in the mens elegant casual menswear space. Reaffirms my desire for a Calistoga vest for Sundance next year (unless they move the festival to Salt Lake City, Boulder or Cincinnati, in which this is all over anyway).