It started as Tomboy chic inspired by football and gym gear and masculine sports. It merged with military trends and spurned utility garb fragmented by zips and dripping with toggles and buckles. Over the past few years, sportswear as a fashion trend has evolved continuously, never really going away completely. And for spring 2012 the evolution continues, with many a designer giving us a fresh take on the sporty theme.
Part of that might well be tied to events of the world. We have an Olympic games coming up in 2012, after all. The men’s runways were first to quote, almost en masse, the Olympics as inspiration. But part is in a desire to keep the threads of minimalism and sports running through the warmer seasons, and doing so woven into a unified aesthetic. Read on for details of how sportswear as a fashion trend is evolving, and how to wear it.
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The obvious question then: what’s new about the trend of sporty fashion for spring 2012?
While utility elements haven’t been done away with all together, they’re far less prominent. Sporty fashion in 2012 is less about taking a specific sports uniform and adapting it as streetwear and more about creating sleek, almost minimalist pieces that have an element of the functional. If last season’s sporty girl was all about effortless slouchy sweatshirts and tomboy attitude, then 2012′s is all about Olympic athleticism as an undercurrent to poised femininity.
Helmut Lang S/S ’12
As such, fashionable sportswear in spring 2012 is all about:
- Looks that are less masculine, and more feminine or androgynous
- Pieces that are form-fitting and sleek, or structured, as opposed to ultra-slouchy
- Sports elements mixed with sophisticated tailoring, and
- Luxurious fabrication in sporty cuts. Look out for leather, silk, sheer fabrics, jersey.
Sporty fashion for spring: elements to look for
Since sportswear fashion in 2012 is all about subtlety, it’s the finer details that count the most. You don’t need to look like you’ve just stepped off a playing field or out of a gym. Instead your best bet is to hunt down versatile pieces that inject a sporty sensibility without being limited to what you can wear them with. Look for:
- Sports bras and tank tops that are minimal and sleek, but with twists like asymmetrical straps. These types of pieces are perfect for layering both day and night time.
- Details like thick elastic strapping, exposed zippers, and utility buckles. Keep them toned down with the outfit, or bold and bright for contrast.
Sporty details at Victoria Beckham S/S ’12 and Alexander Wang S/S ’12
- Mesh or perforated leather, especially when applied unconventionally to a classic item or cut giving it a sporty update.
- Hoods, racer backs as cutaway details on jackets or dresses, outside utility pockets. Again contrasting the details with luxe fabrics and minimal lines gives them a fresh look for 2012.
Cut-away racer backs at Rag & Bone S/S ’12, and Phillip Lim S/S ’12
Sporty chic: complimentary trends
There are plenty of spring 2012′s other trends that can merge well with a hint of the sporty. A sleek bodysuit or asymetrical crop top paired with floating sunray pleats offers up a look that borders on Grecian Goddess; a modern Artemis or Diana.
For a mermaid look gone urban sports, mix sparkling sequins or metallic-foiled leather with luxe jersey or figure hugging wetsuit-like silhouettes.
A tunic with a dropped waist or relaxed silhouette – kept minimal and sans embellishment – works in with the 1920s fashion revival in a sporty way. Also forgo the traditional sports stripes in favour of geometric prints. Art Deco inspired prints in block colours can give a sporty piece an infusion of 1940s modernist cool.
For any sports inspired outfit a wet look hairstyle, whether it’s worn out or thrown up into an easy wet chignon, is a perfect accompaniment.
Sporty clothing for men
While a number of menswear collections for spring 2012 directly quoted Olympic sports as inspiration – notably Nicole Farhi and Moncler Gamme Bleu both referenced sports like fencing and rowing – many also leaned gently to the functional. As with women’s a mix of effortless sporty cuts and tailored pieces was key across menswear, a mix that should be looked to in a man’s wardrobe for the season. For men, the most obvious and most popular way of incorporating a sporty feel into spring is by way of outerwear: hooded coats in parachute silks or jersey, varsity jackets, and parkas are all strong options.
Nicole Farhi S/S ’12, Moncler Gamme Bleu S/S ’12
Sleek, body-conscious cuts aren’t reserved for womenswear, either: a sporty mens jacket or pant cut can take its cues from motorcycle leathers, scuba-gear or other more streamlined sports cuts. At the opposite end of the spectrum loose slouchy pieces or relaxed tailoring offers up a casual sporty aesthetic that can be smartened up by way of luxe fabrics or the right accessories.
Alexander Wang S/S ’12, 3.1 Phillip Lim S/S ’12
Trend Updates
Beauty and the boat (13 Apr 2012)
In the ring: Edita Vilkeviciute
Rag & Bone sported up for Spring
Dsquared2: shearling hiking boots
Alyce Crawford: actively charming
White, bright: Madelen De La Motte
Bar Refaeli shows a little, suggests a lot
Jacques Magazine sports issue cover
Alex Spencer just does it in Nike
Edita Vilkeviciute gets us to the gym
Alexandra Agoston in Sydney: street style
Eniko Mihalik: sporty, blue & bling
Doutzen Kroes gets sporty for Terry Richardson
Sporty fashion in 2010
You know what’s happening now, read on to find out where it’s evolved from.
Alexander Wang’s inimitable cool factor put him at the fore of this trend. The young, fresh interpretation he sent down the runway for Spring 2010 saw us all looking to American football for an injection of youthful tomboy cool into our wardrobes come Spring. But while football is key, it’s not the only sportswear inspiration: don’t forget to look to sports like baseball & hockey, tennis, scuba-diving, and dance.
Sports trend: the looks
The possibilities for 2010′s sportswear fashion trend are many – but it’s also easy to go wrong. Thus, we’ve singled out four key looks for how to wear this trend in 2010: the tomboy, the sporty flapper, the urban dancer, and the Bond bombshell.
The tomboy
She’s the pretty girl at school with the rough-and-tumble attitude, the one who’s blissfully unaware of her own beauty; the one that kicks the ball with the boys oblivious to their crushes. Alexander Wang epitomised this look with his Spring 2010 collection: youthful, unimaginably cool, and ultimately sexy. The cool factor is engineered by way of cropped tops, pants low slung to expose the waistband of an under-layer; leather cross-lacing, jersey fabrics, football-style shoulders. Woven into the effortless tomboy look are super-feminine elements like sheer fabrics and high heeled shoes, placing the look firmly in 2010.
Along with American football – which was also an inspiration behind Alexandre Herchcovitch‘s Spring 2010 collection – you can also take your fashionable sportswear inspiration from other tomboyish sports like hockey, baseball, rugby league, and soccer.
Alexander Wang Spring 2010 runway
The sporty flapper
If she were a character, she’d be The Great Gatsby’s Jordan Baker; athletic, boyish, cynical, seductive. Golf or tennis are the flapper girl’s games, so in 2010 it’s preppy with a 1920s twist. Look no further than Hermes – with drop-waist pleated skirts and sports stripes in classic colours – for inspiration.
Hermes Spring 2010 runway
The urban dancer
She’s a little more Dirty Dancing than Swan Lake; but that said it’s not an 80s costume party free-for-all either. We simply mean that – as with any take on the sports trend in 2010 – it’s best when femininity is kept low key. There’s an element of the urban, of the street. A little bit of toughness and carelessness. Look to Charlotte Ronson as a perfect example, with a subtly stonewashed bodysuit given modern flair; soft ballet pinks and creams transferred into skinny pants and flowing sheer hoodies, her looks capped off by topknots and understated braided sweatbands. Bottega Veneta‘s slouchy sweats in pastel yellows are another prime example.
Charlotte Ronson Spring 2010 runway
The Bond bombshell
You know all those knock-out Bond Girl bikinis that somehow suggest an element of the functional, and yet are really nothing more than sex bomb swimwear? Ursula Andress’ belted bikini, or the red scuba suit in Thunderball… that’s what to think of when you attempt this look.
Based heavily in scuba and diving wear, sleek modern takes were seen on the runways of Gucci, Julien Macdonald, and Alexander McQueen for Spring 2010. Any dabbling in this type of sporty look should be skin-hugging, sexy, and most of all – dangerous.
Scuba-inspired outfit at Julien Macdonald, Spring 2010
How to style it
As described above, there are many ways to add a sporty look to your wardrobe for Spring 2010. For any sporty style, the important thing is not to look too sloppy like you’ve just spent an hour at the gym, or too “glamorous” either – no Juicy Couture velour tracksuits please. Here are a few things more generally that you can try to work the look:
- Messy long hair, the side braid
- Sexed up with super high yet sport-inspired heels
- Incorporate some knee-high socks – look to Alexander Wang’s cut-out back socks, or sports socks with stripes – but in luxe fabrics. The right kind of leg-warmers can also work
- Cross-lacing – particularly in leather – reminiscent of baseball gloves and boot laces
- Shoulder pads, football player style
- Work in the hot pants trend for a sporty take on hot pants or bodysuits
- Cut off tees
- Jersey fabrics; mesh
- Pleated tunics (elegant ones – no super-short cheerleader skirts)
- Utility elements like plastic buckles, snap closures, and rope ties
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