Have you ever seen a figure skiing down a mountain slope or trekking through wooded trails on snowshoes and been unable to tell if this person is male or female? Or worse, are you a woman who has been mistaken for a man while participating in outdoor sports? If so, the problem probably lies in the apparel you were wearing.

“Women want to buy more than just an attitude. They want products that fit, perform, endure, and look great!”

The Zoe Jacket has a narrow cut made for the female torso.

For a long time it was pretty tough for women to look good during cold weather, especially if they also wanted to stay warm. Thanks to Isis for Women, a Vermont-based company of outdoor active wear made just for females, it is possible to enjoy the best of both worlds. Women sometimes are forced to wear sport clothing designed for men, which usually doesn't fit them right. Men, who generally have larger sizes in clothing than women, do not have wide hips but tend to have broader shoulders, which creates an awkward fit for women who dress in men's clothing.

In July 1998, Carolyn Cooke and Poppy Gall, who met each other through their involvement in outdoor sports, started their own line of clothing. Together they collaborated on designs built for a female body and created styles that would catch the women's interest. They named the line after the Egyptian goddess Isis, a symbol of femininity and women's strength. Eight years later there are 350 Isis retailers in the United States, and more in Canada, Korea and starting next winter, in Europe.

The Greta Pant is cut for a woman's waist.

Isis tends to find its best market sales in the mountain states, being well-known in the Rockies and Pacific Northwest. Being a home-grown entity, its hometown of Burlington gives Isis a boost in sales because people recognize the name and tend to choose it over other brands.

“What characterizes our brand is we're all about women on every level of the company,” explains co-founder Cooke. The idea for Isis was born after Cooke and Gall decided to take a stand against the frustrating lack of outdoor apparel offered to women, realizing that many resorted to wearing men's or unisex clothing. They understood that “fit” was more than just a size or number. It's also how a person feels while wearing something and what they can do while wearing it. “I think what really sets us apart from the competition is fit, and we really pay attention to the emotional connection that women have with their clothing,” she says. “It needs to perform, but it's also about how we feel about ourselves in the clothes that we wear.”

Comfort was one of the main factors upon which Isis was founded. As their website says, “Women want to buy more than just an attitude. They want products that fit, perform, endure, and look great!”

“Our mission is really about trying to empower women to feel good about themselves and what they do and who they are.”

Part of what makes Isis so popular is that female customers can relate to the company. Gall and Cooke are very open to suggestions and always welcome feedback. In the early days Cooke personally knew each Isis-clad person she saw, but now she sees women everywhere wearing it. “Every woman has a story about someone telling them how great they looked in their Isis piece,” she says.

The Iris Hat helps retain heat where it is most needed.

As for what it's like to go out and see women wearing your own creations, “It's amazing,” Cooke says. “It was really rewarding and they all looked great.”

Jackets, vests, pants, and hats are among the items Isis sells, complete with a variety of styles for different body shapes and sizes. The clothing is designed to be fashionable yet flattering. Gall is the duo's color expert, using nature as her inspiration for their products' colors and giving each shade a name that nods to its source. Shades of blue include marina, wave, ocean and blueberry, and butter and mango are variations of a golden yellow color.

Isis products are designed for a multitude of specialized activities and organized into the categories of Apres Ski, Backcountry Skiing, Nordic Skiing, Lift Service Skiing, Snowboarding, Snowshoeing, and Winter Camping. One of the unique traits of Isis is the system by which Cooke and Gall name the clothes. The majority of the styles have their own namesake: for example, the Greta Pant, the Lindsey Hoodie, and the Zoe Jacket. This helps to give a sense of intimacy, which is something not often found among retailers. When coming up with new names for the clothing styles, the women of Isis turn to those of goddesses and famous women for ideas. Each name either relates to something or someone that Cooke and Gall know–Zoe is Gall's dog.

The Niobe Vest is stuffed but not bulky.

Isis jackets and vests come in several materials, depending on the intended purpose of the article. Some are stuffed with down and have blocked quilting, while others have waterproof technical shells. Pants are made from materials like microfleece or nylon, depending on the style of the item. Hats, made of wool and microfleece, include pillboxes and beanies, some of which have tassels.

What items are Isis' best sellers? Currently, they have been selling a lot of their warmer clothing. Isis centers around a three-level layering technique, with a base layer, a middle layer, and outerwear. The Niobe Jacket, Hotflash Jacket, and Silkweight body layers are among the more popular items, probably due to their ability to fulfill multiple traits - like the rest of the clothing produced by Isis, they are functional, feminine, colorful, playful, and warm.

“Our mission is really about trying to empower women to feel good about themselves and what they do and who they are,” Cooke says.

Looking for an Isis dealer near you? Go to the company's website and enter your zip code under the “Dealers” link and you will be supplied with a list of the retailers near you.

What do you think of Isis and their women's active wear?

Just For Women

Isis is the Egyptian goddess of fertility and motherhood. She is an icon well-suited to describe the female essence, which the creators of the Isis line of women's outdoor clothing have been working to capture. Isis represents the Yin energies and creation, rebirth, ascension, intuition, psychic abilities, higher chakras, higher frequency vibrations, and love and compassion - all of which are aspects of femininity. She is known as the first goddess, and the protectress of women.

“We're all about women and we're all about being strong women–taking the world by storm, and she sort of epitomizes and represents that,” Carolyn Cooke says of the goddess.

Cooke also says that while many women know who Isis is, most men have never heard of her and often pronounce the name wrong, saying Ish-ish.

The brand name “is about women, not just about the outdoors,” Cooke says. “We're really a women's company that makes clothing for the outdoors, not an outdoor company that has clothing for women.”

Bonds of Sisterhood

Along with their devotion to helping women fulfill their lives, Isis also spends energy working with other groups, organizations and companies to further advance women's issues. One of their partners within this community is the Breast Cancer Fund, the leading national organization working to increase preventative knowledge and awareness of breast cancer among the public. Their main focus lies with the environmental causes of breast cancer.

Isis encourages its customers to become informed of the groups they work with and to support them in every way possible. The company has given money, products and goods to the Breast Cancer Fund to help with their efforts, which share similar goals and are in the same realm. It's “a project that fits well with our personal mission to support and empower women,” Cooke says.

Other organizations associated with Isis include Mind Over Mountains, the Women's Wilderness Institute, the Catamount Trail Association, and the Green Mountain Club.