Men's Après-Ski Outfits: What to Wear Off the Mountain

Men's après-ski outfits start at the feet. The walk from the last lift to the bar is packed snow, slush or ice, and the bar is warm, so dress for both: boots on a deep rubber lug sole, a sweater good enough to be the outfit once your jacket comes off, wool or corduroy trousers (or the ski pants you came down in, if the bar sits at the bottom of the run), and a short shearling, suede or wool jacket you can sit down in. Then keep everything in one color family, warm or dark, so the jacket, the knit and the boots agree whichever layer is on show.

Below: the three changes between the last run, the bar and dinner; eight outfits in those two families; and the boots, knitwear, jackets, trousers, dinner knits, hats and gloves to buy, from Brunello Cucinelli, Zegna, Prada, TOTEME, Moncler and nineteen other houses. For the kit you ski in, from the shell to the helmet, see our men's ski outfits.

Men's après-ski outfits: three changes after the last run

Most of what makes après work happens in three changes, made in this order.

1. At the base: the boots. Ski boots are built to lock into a binding, not to cross an icy parking lot or a flight of stone steps. Change at the locker or the car into boots with a rubber lug sole. OSHA's winter-weather guidance calls insulated, water-resistant boots with good rubber treads "a must" for walking during or after a winter storm, and tells anyone on an icy path to take short steps and walk more slowly, so they can react to a change in traction.
2. At the bar: the sweater. In our experience the shell is on a hook within minutes of sitting down in a heated room, so whatever you wore under it becomes the outfit. At a slopeside bar, keep the ski pants and base layer and make the layer over them a knit or a teddy zip-up you would wear anyway. Swap the helmet for a beanie or a cashmere cap that hides helmet hair.
3. Before dinner: everything else. Change into flannel or corduroy, a finer knit such as a polo or a rollneck, and a Chelsea boot that still has a rubber sole. Bring the heavier coat for the walk home, not only the walk there: the National Weather Service's cold-weather advice says to avoid alcohol in the cold and notes that it reduces shivering, which is part of how the body keeps you warm.

Eight après-ski outfits for men, in two color families

Vêtir's stylists dress every après outfit inside one of two color families, because the walk, the bar and dinner each show the whole outfit at once. The warm family is brown, chocolate, tan and camel, worn with cream, ecru, khaki, olive, burgundy and gray flannel. The dark family is black, charcoal, gray and navy, worn with white, ivory, cream, olive and burgundy. Après dressing invites two crossings, brown suede boots under navy ski pants or blue jeans, and black ski wear over brown boots; those are the two pairings our stylists keep apart, so each outfit below stays in its own family.

The warm family: brown, cream, khaki and olive

• Straight off the lift. Keep beige, olive or brown ski pants and your base layer. Swap the shell for Moncler's ivory teddy hoodie with tan nylon panels, the helmet for Berluti's brown brushed-cashmere cap, and pull on Moncler's brown teddy gloves for the walk.
• The walk into town. Saint Laurent's tan suede jacket, lined in shearling, over Moncler's chestnut crewneck with its cream geometric jacquard, Zegna's dark brown wool flannel five-pocket trousers and Brunello Cucinelli's taupe suede hiking boots: the outfit in our lead image. Add Moncler's brown wool beanie.
• By the fire. Burberry's cream cable crewneck with Etro's khaki corduroys and Bottega Veneta's Pier, a tan suede moc-toe lace-up on a rubber sole.
• The steakhouse dinner. TOTEME's dark brown leather flight jacket, lined in cream shearling, over The Row's driftwood polo in wool and cashmere, with Gabriela Hearst's chocolate cashmere corduroys and Brunello Cucinelli's taupe suede Chelsea boots.

The dark family: black, gray, navy and cream

• Straight off the lift. Keep black ski pants and your base layer. Swap the shell for Moncler's black teddy zip-up and the helmet for Prada's black trapper hat in Re-Nylon and wool, with Burberry's black deerskin gloves.
• The walk into town. Givenchy's black leather aviator, lined in black curly shearling, over TOTEME's cream alpaca-blend sweater striped in navy, with Givenchy's black wool flannel trousers, cut wide enough to fall over Balenciaga's mid-calf Cargo Low boots.
• By the fire. Prada's navy zip cardigan in chunky Aran-knit wool, over Kiton's gray wool polo, with Prada's gray mouliné wool trousers and Dries Van Noten's black Chelsea boots.
• Dinner in town. Zegna's gray wool-and-cashmere blouson, water repellent according to its listing, over Loewe's navy wool polo, with The Row's faded-black corduroys and Gucci's black rubber-soled Chelsea boots.

Two habits keep either family working for a whole week. Pack one pair of boots for the walk and one for dinner, both in your family, rather than a pair per outfit, and let the sweater carry the color or the pattern while the trousers stay plain. For the women's side of the same trip, see our après-ski outfits guide; for town clothes on the days you don't ski, men's winter outfits by temperature.

Après-ski boots for men: rubber first, then the shape

Two kinds of boot do the work. The lug-sole lace-up is for the walk. Brunello Cucinelli's hiking boots set waxed suede and tonal nylon on rugged rubber soles that, according to the listing, are there for a reliable grip. Balenciaga's Cargo Low is the dark-family version: a black leather combat boot that rises to mid-calf, with a pocket on the shaft and a deep rubber lug. Bottega Veneta's Pier is the gentler version, a tan suede moc-toe lace-up with the house's Intrecciato weave across the vamp, on a rubber sole with a chevron tread rather than a lug.

The rubber-soled Chelsea boot is for dinner and the walk to it. Dries Van Noten sets smooth black leather on rubber chevron soles that its listing credits with reliable traction. Gucci's pair is rubber-soled too. So is Brunello Cucinelli's taupe suede pair, set off by dark brown elastic. Our stylists' checks before buying any of them:

• Turn it over. Rubber, with tread you can feel. A leather sole belongs on cleared city sidewalks on a dry night, not on packed snow.
• Suede for dry cold, leather for slush. Suede marks in wet, salted snow; waxed suede and smooth leather cope better and wipe clean.
• Room for a thick sock. Try boots on with the socks you will wear after skiing, which are usually heavier than city socks.
• A shaft your trousers can cover. An ankle boot disappears under any straight leg. A mid-calf boot such as the Cargo Low needs a wide, relaxed trouser that falls over the shaft; under a slim leg the hem bunches on top of it.

For shearling-lined snow boots and the fit rules for each style, see our guide to the best men's winter boots, or browse every pair of men's cold-weather boots.

Men's ski lodge outfits: the sweater is the outfit

After skiing, the sweater is what everyone sees, so it is the piece to spend on. Choose texture or pattern, and size it for what goes under it, a base layer or a polo collar, with enough length to cover your waistband when you reach across a table.

Fair Isle is the pattern a ski sweater brings to mind, and as a sweater it is younger than it looks. According to the V&A, Fair Isle is a remote island between Orkney and Shetland, and sweaters in the style we know were not made until the First World War; a vogue followed in the 1920s, partly because the Prince of Wales wore one as part of his golfing clothes, and natural shades such as brown, gray and white were preferred. In our experience those natural shades are still the easiest way to wear pattern after skiing, in the warm family and over plain trousers.

Read the fiber line, because few lodge sweaters are a single fiber. Maison Margiela's Fair Isle-inspired V-neck is half wool and half alpaca, and Brunello Cucinelli's argyle V-neck is mostly alpaca, with nylon, cashmere and wool. Zegna's chunky 3-gauge turtleneck, knitted with a cream and rust zigzag across the chest and sleeves, is mostly cashmere, with wool, silk and a little mohair. Moncler's chestnut crewneck is virgin wool with a little nylon, and Burberry's cream crewneck is wool with 5 percent cashmere, its cables knitted into the house check. Dries Van Noten's olive crewneck is alpaca with wool and nylon, TOTEME's striped sweater is an alpaca and cashmere blend, and Isabel Marant's Leonard, the loud one, is super kid mohair in color-block.

• Over a polo. A V-neck shows the collar, the quickest way to make a lodge sweater look ready for dinner.
• Over a base layer. A crewneck hides the thermal; push the sleeves up rather than take the sweater off when the room warms up.

Browse all men's sweaters.

Zip cardigans and half-zips: the knit you can open

A full zip is the most practical knit at après: closed under a jacket on the walk, open by the fire. Prada makes two very different ones. The navy one is chunky Aran-knit wool. The other is sand-colored wool and cashmere, with a dark brown collar, cuffs and hem. Moncler's chestnut zip cardigan is extra-fine virgin wool and Canali's green zip-up is an alpaca blend. Tom Ford's navy cardigan pairs a wool knit with lamb leather, according to its listing. Burberry's taupe half-zip is heavyweight cashmere with a leather zip guard embossed with the house check.

Après-ski jackets for men that aren't your ski jacket

A ski jacket is cut to move on a mountain, and in a bar it looks like it. For the walk into town and the hours after, our stylists choose a jacket short enough to sit down in, warm enough for the walk and good enough to keep on in a chilly room. Shearling does all three on a dry, cold day; on wet snow a water-repellent wool does better, because suede and shearling dislike slush.

Every jacket below names shearling in its listing. TOTEME's flight jacket is full-grain leather lined in long-wool shearling, with belt tabs to cinch the waist; Saint Laurent's is shearling with ribbed wool trim; and Tom Ford's camel suede jacket has dyed shearling trim. Canali's sage suede jacket has natural sheep shearling at the stand collar. Givenchy's black leather aviator, the dark-family choice, is lined and collared in curly dyed lamb shearling. Etro's leather coat, lined in shearling, is the longer one for dinner, and Brunello Cucinelli's shawl-collar peacoat in curly shearling is the coat you buy once. Where a listing also uses the word fur, it means the shearling itself, a lamb or sheep skin tanned with its fleece left on; no piece here is trimmed in any other fur. Our guide to shearling coats explains how to tell real shearling from faux, and you can browse more men's shearling.

Fit shearling over a sweater, not over a ski mid-layer. It is bulky to begin with, and a jacket sized for a down vest underneath will hang off you at dinner.

Wool, cashmere and teddy: lighter layers for the bar

Zegna's gray blouson, in wool and cashmere, is the one for wet snow in town, since its listing calls it water repellent. Prada's Re-Wool blouson is reversible, and so is Moncler's Frothive: virgin wool in a tan glen check on one face and the house's Aquaflect fabric on the other, according to its listing. Thom Browne's gray patchwork shirt jacket and Burberry's charcoal overshirt, in wool and cashmere, go over a knit like a second sweater. Loewe's hooded vest is curly Merino shearling, warm through the body with your arms free. Moncler's teddy zip-ups are the slopeside layer. The black one is polyester teddy with nylon trims. The ivory hoodie is a polyester and wool teddy with tan nylon panels.

What to wear on your legs: ski pants, flannel or corduroy

One of the ski requests our AI stylist has received was simply "pants for après-ski", and in our experience trousers are where men's après outfits most often go wrong.

• Slopeside, keep the ski pants. A plain, dark pair reads as trousers at a bar at the foot of the lift.
• Anywhere you walk to, change. In our experience wool flannel is the warmest everyday trouser in the cold; corduroy, usually cotton with a raised wale, suits a dry day better than a wet one.
• No break. Hem trousers to sit on top of the boot, so the cloth stays out of the slush.

Zegna's dark brown trousers are wool flannel with a five-pocket cut, and Burberry's espresso track trousers are stretch wool with a drawstring waist, for an evening in. In the dark family, Prada's gray mouliné pair is virgin wool, and Givenchy's black flannel has a relaxed, straight leg wide enough to fall over a mid-calf boot. For corduroy in the warm family, there is Etro's khaki pair in cotton with a little elastane, Burberry's light brown Danny and Gabriela Hearst's Harold in chocolate cashmere corduroy. The Row's Tavoli, in faded black, is the dark-family corduroy. Browse all men's trousers.

Dinner after skiing: a knit polo, flannel and a rubber sole

For dinner in a ski town, the knit polo is our stylists' favorite layer: the collar looks considered under a shearling jacket, the wool keeps you warm on the walk, and it never needs a tie. Loewe's navy polo is medium-weight wool with a poplin collar, Tom Ford's is black wool and Kiton's is gray wool with a three-button placket. Burberry's is chocolate wool, and The Row's Blainy is wool and cashmere in a gray-brown melange the house calls driftwood. If you prefer a rollneck, Zegna's light beige one is an 8-gauge wool and cashmere blend.

In the warm family, wear the chocolate or driftwood polo with corduroy, the taupe suede Chelsea boot and Etro's brown shearling-lined leather coat. In the dark family, wear the navy, black or gray polo with flannel, a black Chelsea boot and Brunello Cucinelli's sand shearling peacoat. Jackets and ties are rarely expected in ski-town restaurants, in our experience, but check when you book. If you are headed to Colorado, our Aspen guide covers dinner in town.

Beanies, caps and gloves for après-ski

A cap or a beanie is the fastest fix for helmet hair. Berluti's brown cap is brushed cashmere; Moncler's brown beanie is virgin wool and Valentino's gray one is cable-knit wool. Prada's camel earflap beanie covers your ears for the walk, and so does Dries Van Noten's wool trapper, a green and tan Fair Isle crown on turquoise zigzag earflaps that tie under the chin. Prada's black trapper pairs Re-Nylon with fleece wool. For your hands, Burberry's black deerskin gloves are lined in cashmere and silk. Moncler's brown teddy gloves put a polyester and acrylic teddy over a cashmere lining, with a zipped cuff. Gloves are sized, so check the brand's chart against a pair you already own, and browse more men's gloves.

Not sure what goes with the jacket or boots you already own? Ask our AI stylist to build the rest of the après outfit around them, in whichever color family you choose.

How we chose

• A rubber sole on every boot. We read each listing's sole line, and leather-soled boots, however good-looking, stayed out.
• Knits by fiber, named honestly. Most lodge sweaters are blends, so we give the alpaca, nylon and cashmere as the listings give them, and we left out zip knits that are mostly cotton.
• Shearling that says so. Every shearling piece is called shearling in its own listing, and we left out anything with a fur trim of another kind. Moncler's teddy pieces are a synthetic teddy, mostly polyester, and we say so.
• Colors from the photographs. Etro's corduroys are listed as green and photograph as khaki, and Prada's wool and cashmere zip cardigan is listed as beige khaki and photographs as sand with dark brown bands. The color family depends on the color you see, so that is the color we name.
• New to our ski coverage. When we published, none of these pieces appeared in our ski, après or men's winter edits.
• Price. From a wool beanie under $500 to a curly shearling peacoat in five figures.

Frequently asked questions

What should a man wear to après-ski?

Boots with a rubber lug sole, a sweater that can be your top layer indoors, and either the ski pants you came down in (at a slopeside bar) or wool or corduroy trousers. Add a short shearling, suede or wool jacket for the walk, a beanie or cap for helmet hair and leather gloves, all in one color family.

Can you wear jeans to après-ski?

On a dry, cold day, yes. In slush our stylists switch to wool flannel, because wet denim is wet cotton and stays cold. With blue jeans they wear black or gray boots and the rest of the dark family.

What shoes do men wear to après-ski?

Lace-up boots on a deep rubber lug for the walk from the lift, and rubber-soled Chelsea boots for dinner. Keep leather-soled shoes for cleared sidewalks.

Do you need to change after skiing for après?

Not for a bar at the bottom of the lift: keep the ski pants and base layer, and swap the shell for a knit or a teddy zip-up and the helmet for a beanie. Change your boots before walking anywhere, and change the rest for dinner.

What do men wear to dinner in a ski town?

A knit polo or a fine rollneck, flannel or corduroy trousers, rubber-soled Chelsea boots and a shearling or wool coat for the walk back.

What should a man pack for the evenings of a ski trip?

For a week: two lodge sweaters, a zip knit, two knit polos or rollnecks, a pair each of flannel and corduroy trousers, a shearling or suede jacket, a longer coat for dinner, lug-sole boots, Chelsea boots, a beanie or cap and leather gloves, all in one color family so everything mixes. For the mountain itself, see what to wear skiing.

Keep reading

• Men's ski outfits, from the jacket to the helmet
• What to wear skiing, layer by layer
• Après-ski outfits for women, from the terrace to dinner
• Gifts for skiers, from the lift to après
• The best men's winter boots