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| Visors at Givenchy’s Resort 2012 (left), Reese in Emporio Armani scuba suit-ish dress (right) |
With SuperBowl fever still lingering in the air, Spring’s athletic trend is getting ready to make a full court press. We’ve seen this look many times before, as it’s a natural for S/S collections. What makes it different this go round is its subtlety. Designers are not proposing we appear at cocktail gatherings in tennis gear or biker shorts (thank you for that). Instead it’s more of a “sport-inspired” look, with elements like D-rings, traditionally sport-affiliated, popping up on items like Victoria Beckham’s sleek and huggy dresses. There is an abundance of hoods, rolled sleeves, and techno-fabrics that invoke a recollection of all things athletica. High-performance fabrics like mesh and neoprene make appearances as do scuba suit silhouettes, like the Emporio Armani seen on Reese Witherspoon’s recent ELLE cover. At Barbara Bui, barely recognizable embellished sweatshirts were paired with “I’ve been living at the gym” black track-style pants with venting at the ankles: a cosmopolitan way to do sport. It was subtle at Givenchy’s Resort 2012, taking the form of a citrus colored visor. Isabel Marant put forth the most blatant take, with a red football jersey. Even that, paired with tie-dye jeans, conjures up a cheeky rather than sweaty aesthetic…less “down and hut” and more “borrowed from Brady”.
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| From top left: Victoria Beckham’s dress with d-rings, Barbara Bui’s embellished sweatshirt and no-room-for-error track pants, Vera Wang’s scuba silhouette dress, hoods and high tech fabrics at Rag & Bone, and football jerseys at Isabel Marant |
