How Arc’teryx Veilance Pioneered Technical Apparel for the City

Veilance

Veilance’s origins start with the founding of Arc’teryx in 1989. The well-known genesis of the brand occurred in 1989 when David Lane and Jeremy Guard started ideating rock climbing-harness designs and founded Rock Solid Manufacturing in Vancouver, BC, which was later renamed Arc’teryx, inspired by the archaeopteryx transitional fossil.

Although the next two decades of Arc’teryx were defined by its pursuit of core climbing designs like harnesses, backpacks like the 1994 Bora backpack, and technical shell jackets like the 1998 Arc’teryx Alpha SV, in 2007 a new offshoot collection started to percolate. That year, the CEO of Arc’teryx Tyler Jordan started the development of a new Arc’teryx collection that targeted the city dweller, instead of the brand’s typical mountaineering clientele. The core ambition of the collection was to make things lighter, more durable, and more invisible in a city context.

This collection was, of course, Arc’teryx Veilance. In the early days, two designers were critical in the foundation of Veilance: Errolson Hugh and Conroy Nachtigall.

An apparel designer from Canada, Nachtigall had conceived of a technically focused menswear label in the early 2000s, and during a conversation with Arc’teryx, he discovered a similar idea to his was being shaped inside the brand. Nachtigall officially joined Arc’teryx in 2003.

Founder of ACRONYM and once the lead designer of Nike’s ACG line, Errolson Hugh was a longtime contact and colleague of Jordan’s, and the two had previously connected over their shared affinity for technical detailing like waterproof zippers. Circa 2007, Jordan reached out to Errolson Hugh to enlist his help with developing Veilance. Hugh told 032C, “We landed on Veilance based on veiling, covering, surveillance.”

Another designer and key player for Veilance, Carl Moriarty spoke to SSENSE about the experimental nature of the Arc’teryx sublabel, noting “Part of starting Veilance was about giving us a little bit of freedom to explore. It allowed us to put these products out on the side and slowly release them into a different channel and see what reaction we got from them.”

Cyberpunk writer and author of Neuromancer, William Gibson would later take to Twitter to reveal a previously unconfirmed footnote of Veilance lore tied to the name of an Arc’teryx sub-collection launched in 2022. “Errolson and I first met while consulting on the Arc’teryx line that became Veilance, the brand-name he came up with. Mine was “SystemA” (from the Russian unarmed combat school “systema”). I see it‘s finally made it, as System_A.”

Arc’teryx Veilance was finally unveiled to the world on October 10, 2009. Veilance Fall 2009 came with collection notes that read “Applying our expertise in performance design to the urban environment brings a new category in apparel based on aesthetic style, superior quality, and extraordinary performance. We introduce Arc’teryx Veilance – products that advance personal freedom, allowing a seamless connection between individual, environs, and action.”

When it came to the final 15-piece collection, the basic idea of Veilance was to take the best performance fabrics, laminations, and finishes, and use them to re-imagine classic menswear silhouettes. Thanks to its close partnership with GORE-TEX, Arc’teryx was able to use GORE’s waterproof fabrics for the first Veilance collection as well.

The range itself included a few items that have earned their place in later and more current Veilance collections like a technical blazer silhouette, a field jacket-inspired design, and a long-cut hooded jacket, all rendered in the stealthy minimalism that still defines Veilance now.

After Nachtigall departed Arc’teryx, Veilance was placed under the purview of creative director Taka Kasuga, a graduate of Tokyo’s Bunka Fashion College who cut his teeth working for Japanese designer Junya Watanabe.

Under Kasuga’s direction, May 2021 marked the introduction of Veilance’s first women’s collection, bringing Veilance’s minimalist-techwear DNA to feminine silhouettes, as illustrated by the first collection’s precisely tailored shapes. Just like the men’s offerings, Veilance women’s skirts, dresses, and blouses maintain a chic look and feel but are cleverly made from the best performance materials.

Along the way, Veilance has folded in accessories, including baseball hats and bucket hats, as well as one of the most technically grocery-shopping bags you will ever see, the Seque Tote.

Veilance’s design DNA has matured and grown over the years, and today the Arc’teryx subcollection is the most diverse and compelling that it has ever been.

You can now shop the latest from Veilance online and at the HHV store.

Text by Chris Danforth