Sunday 25 September 2011

Sports Luxe - very, very frightening me

When I see trend for sportswear in all of the fashion magazines, I begin to worry.

(Above is Elle October cover star Emma Watson in Jil Sander A/W11 sportswear knit).

In the nineties women chose to ditch tracksuit bottoms with elasticated ankles for exercise purposes in favour of yoga pants and, more recently, leggings. In short, they were just more flattering. Now the fashion press is shouting about the look becoming a wardrobe must for every day. Gathered-at-the-ankle looks good on no-one, even if you have wedges on.

(The above 'sweats' are available from Aubin and Willis).

With the likes of Phoebe Philo at Celine, Philip Lim and Jil Sander designing extremely popular minimalistic collections over the last few seasons it was only a matter of time before Utility turned Sporty.

The look itself is summed up by Marie Claire 'Team loose, jersey trousers with a draped, racer back vest and wedge-style plimsolls.' You can see the pound-signs appear in the high street label's eyes as it dawns on them that they can recreate the structure and simplicity of their own collections with inexpensive sweatshirt fabric.

(Racer back vest top by Vanessa Bruno)

This is all well and good, and not untypical in the fashion world, and yet the worry is that to get away with the current trend for sportswear-as-daywear you will need to be exceptionally slim, working in fashion, have a healthy bank balance and you will need to be in heels. No pressure.

Let loose in the mainstream, this trend only gives women a license to team Juicy Couture velour tracksuits up with The Dreaded Sheepskin Boots for a truly slobby and unflattering look. This is real fright night stuff and enough for me to start having dreams about my teeth falling out all Halloween.

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