For low complexity clothing — outerwear, knit caps, gloves — these items certainly required hands-on service. Patrons spent a remarkable amount of time in front of the store’s huge mirrors, sampling styles different only by the faintest degree. Huge white bags tagged with the company’s logo flew out of the store steadily, many of them probably filled with one of the signature Michelin-Man-fat jackets and vests , which make up a significant percentage of the inventory. They are garments that bring commodity fetishism to outerwear, turning a basic into a covetable thing. Personally, I prefer a winter jacketthat doesn’t advertise itself as such, largely because I prefer to engage with winter only theoretically. I love cold weather; I just dislike participating in activities that require cold weather. I am at no risk of getting caught underdressed in Gstaad, or on Hunter Mountain, or even in a steep bit of Riverside Park. The Moncler jackets , long the preserve of skiers (the company was founded in 1952), began appearing on fashionable hip-hop crowds a few years ago, widening the company’s reach beyond specialty shoppers. They come in a slate of bold and sometimes disquieting colors, often shiny, and, for winter wear, are relatively slimming.