Walk into any department store, and you’ll likely see clothing explicitly made for any number of sports that comes to mind. Sportswear is a lucrative industry, from the ever-popular yoga pants to outfits designed for pre, during and post-football matches or basketball games. Though it’s not unusual nowadays to rock athletic gear outside the gym, this wasn’t always the case.
It wasn’t until the 1920s, when women began engaging in a more active lifestyle, that sportswear became a fashion genre. Design houses began to make more relaxed outfits for both women and men, focusing on comfortable fabric cutting that provided greater mobility. Until this point, those who participated in sports or other leisure activities simply removed some layers from their formal daily outfits.
The rise of sportswear meant people demanded to look stylish when engaging in different sports. The era likely gave rise to fashion houses that could combine impeccable design with comfort and practicality. Both tailoring and fabrics became essential elements in sportswear.
Fast forward to today, sports teams’ identities are often closely linked to their image. Not only do uniforms project a sense of solidarity among players, but they’ve also become necessary to fans that want to show their support for their favourite players and teams by dressing in the team kit.
This also means that sports franchises are increasingly emphasising how their players look on and off the field. Sports teams are enlisting the help of top fashion brands to design dedicated looks for their players to project a more curated, polished and unified look for teams.
Juventus football players are among the most recent to get entirely new wardrobes for formal team engagements. Tapping into the unique fabric-making history of Italian fashion house Loro Piana, the team unveiled bespoke suits inspired by the house’s iconic wool fabric and single-breasted jacket. The Torino jacket and trousers are created using an exclusively engineered water-repellent wool- the natural fibres are said to be highly breathable and supple.
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