Behind fashion’s re-embrace of sports influences
The return of in-person sporting events and the rise of female sporting codes may have something to do with the current wave of sportif influences in fashion.
Casting around outside the shows of late, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d crossed paths with football fans on their way home from a match. Or motorsports die-hards, revved up for a day trackside. And are those tennis enthusiasts head-to-toe in blinding Wimbledon whites? In Paris? In September? A second glance reveals these supporters are pairing rugby stripes with sky-high Balenciaga boots, hoodies with sleek white maxis, 1980s shell jackets with shoes from The Row, and that tracksuit? Vintage Gucci.
Fashion’s total re-embrace of sports influences is not just a natural go-round of the trend cycle – long has the athletic been a rich vein of design inspiration – but a confluence of many forces.
Instead of philosophising on complex social mores, Felicity Brand, head of branding and merchandising at local luxury multi-brand store Mode Sportif, attributes the trend’s home run to the uncurtailed return of in-person sporting events – this month’s Australian Open for one – noting an increased appetite for what we missed in lockdown and the rise of female sporting codes.
“Women’s sport is finally receiving much attention. Australia’s Matildas are getting paid the same as the Socceroos, and in England the historic win for women’s football in the Euro final was watched by a record number of people,” she says.
Brand also cites the launch of HermèsFit, an interactive gym experience from the typically understated French brand late last year and the wildly successful sport-fashion hook-up of Adidas with, among others, Balenciaga, Gucci and Wales Bonner. The latter reworked the sell-out $120 Samba sneaker to great success.
Originally created as a futsal shoe in 1949, it has ridden waves of popularity, including in 1990s English football culture, but never so much as today; now a fashion grail and sometimes resold for upwards of $1,000, fuelled by its status as go-to for super-influencers Bella Hadid, Rihanna and Hailey Bieber.
But it’s not just soccer scoring goals. Aerodynamic cycling glasses, motorcycle jackets in racing brights, riding boots ready for showjumping at Dior and grand-prix inspired jumpsuits at Chanel, alongside high-performance flight jackets, are all in the race. While we got cosy with tracksuits in the pandemic, this time the look comes with a glamorous patina.
“People have moved out of their covid-comfort lounge sets and are ready to play in the real world again, so we’re seeing more of an elevated athletic street style,” says Laura May Gibbs, founder of Byron Bay label Nagnata, which blends fashion and activewear.
“I’ve seen micro miniskirts, reinterpreted college sweats and cable knits styled with suiting and denim,” Gibbs continues. She highlights the concurrent rise of sporting-adjacent style, the kind pioneered by doyen of prep Ralph Lauren.
That same feel, extending to American collegiate style, is infiltrating fashion once more with letterman jackets and tennis skirts led by Miu Miu’s blockbuster abbreviated white box-pleat rendition (if you need proof, the hashtag #tennisskirts has 153 million views on TikTok).
“Renewed interest in the royal family – [look at] Instagram accounts such as @ladydirevengelooks chronicling Princess Diana’s preppy style – have started to circulate in the media,” notices Brand, who says 90s minimalism and all-American prep are sharing a moment, traded on by emerging brands such as S.S. Daley and Connor Ives.
“Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy is the poster child of 90s Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein minimalism.”
Which brings us to the newest spin: sports couture. Dubbed athluxury by US Vogue, it’s positioning sport against a backdrop of polished glamour – think stilettos with Versace basketball shorts and sharp blazer for night, or sneakers with an oversized Nagnata track-and field jumper and heart-shaped heels, taking it to a new level of sophistication. The latter is what fashion influencer and content creator Irina Kro Eicke wore to a summer gallery opening.
“When I attended the Private Policy show [at New York Fashion Week], I wore a white sporty hoodie paired with a midi denim skirt from American Vintage and off-white blue denim over-the-knee boots from Naked Wolfe,” she remembers of another go-to outfit.
“If I’m not dressed in a head-to-toe look, I’m styling my Nagnata knits back with suiting and denim, sneakers and sandals – and heels by night,” shares Gibbs, while Brand says ballet flats count as part of the trend, being in step with the growing spotlight on traditionally female athletic pursuits.
“Obviously Miu Miu,” she says of which labels to buy into, “but I also love the more minimal takes from Aeyde and Margiela’s Tabi flats.”
If you’ve never dabbled, the time’s now to give it a sporting chance.
This article appears in the January issue of Vogue Australia, on sale now.