With the advent of sporting events clouding the media this summer, sport is playing a much more dominant role in our everyday lives, and the world of fashion has noticed. With FIFA World Cup flags in pubs, and the current idolisation of toned muscle, sport is truly everywhere. I want to know how sport is manifesting itself in fashion, and if it’s here to stay.
The athleisure aesthetic has given athletes the status of catwalk models in the fashion industry, with sponsorships, campaigns, and even their own brands being huge successes. This aesthetic has given rise to the debate of whether gym clothes should be worn outside of the gym. Many people, including The Devil Wears Prada’s iconic Meryl Streep, hold a strong stance against this normalised idea. Stanley Tucci also asserted that people should “Wear athletic wear when [they]’re working out. No other time,” on The Devil Wears Prada 2’s red carpet.
While these Hollywood A-listers certainly have opinions on blending sport and fashion, luxury fashion brands such as Gucci, Dior, and Burberry evidently disagree. Notably, these luxury brands don’t showcase leggings and sports bras as an outfit. Instead, brands capitalise off of athletes’ fame to reach a wider audience. In 2023, Jannik Sinner appeared at Wimbledon with a Gucci monogrammed bag as part of the Gucci x HEAD collaboration. This move was certainly attention grabbing, given the tennis competition’s strict white dress code. Even before this, brands have long been infiltrating the sports arena more subtly; notably when Dior made Emma Raducanu a brand ambassador following her US Open in 2021.
As a stereotypically wealthy demographic, tennis fans are an obvious target audience for luxury retailers. Nonetheless, footballers are also becoming fashion icons, and is it any wonder? After all, they have incredibly large followings on Instagram, and are worshipped like deities. Perhaps these campaigns are so popular because we are accustomed to seeing athletes in sports kit, so seeing them in designer attire resonates.
In business, women dominate fashion and men dominate sport, so it is interesting to analyse how these roles are changing in the cross-section of the two industries. Women’s football is on the rise but unfortunately, their funding remains minimal. Stylist Kiera Liberati worked with some female footballers in 2023, reporting that “a lot of the [England team] are still quite tomboyish and wearing sports brands, but [she does] think it will come.” As per Liberati’s predictions, some high profile players have since secured opulent brand deals. The former Lioness captain, Leah Williamson, has made a name for herself in the fashion world, headlining campaigns for Burberry and Calvin Klein, as well as partnering with Nike and Gucci. It is clear from the plethora of reputable brands investing in players that athletes have become valuable marketing instruments.
There is still a huge disparity in the merchandise available for the men’s and women’s respective World Cups, however. In the 2023 Women’s World Cup (of which the Lionesses were finalists), replica goalkeeper jerseys were excluded from official custom printing, meaning that Mary Earps’ shirts simply did not exist. Nike faced backlash and finally released Earps’ green long-sleeved Lionesses shirt, the product selling out twice after a matter of minutes. Earps is the highest-paid women’s goalkeeper in the world and won The Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper in 2023 and 2024. However, the England men’s goalkeeper Jordan Pickford is not only paid around 35 times more than Earps, but there has never been a supply issue with his merchandise. It seems that previously, there has not been enough of a focus on basic apparel in women’s football.
Unofficial merchandise is certainly in fashion with high-street brands such as ASOS, Primark, and even Urban Outfitters selling sports merchandise, such as the so-called Victoria Beckham football vest – though notably her brand hasn’t advertised one. American Football Jerseys have long been modified for the fashionable and financial benefit of audiences, and now ruched and tie-side football t-shirts are widely available for the romanticised football nations of Italy, England, and Brazil. It is of course inclusive to produce both feminine and sporty apparel that people can afford, and that brands think women will want to wear, but for me these stylised shirts have strong connotations of women being the spectators of sport, rather than aspiring to play. However, the Urban Outfitters label ‘iets frans’ is the badge on much of their athleisure in the place of a country or club logo, perhaps suggesting that this trend is fashion in its own right, longer term than initially thought, and shouldn’t be solely analysed within the context of the world cup.
Ultimately, it is encouraging to see that women are finally in the sporting spotlight and attaining similar fashion brand deals to their male counterparts, and I am personally very pleased to see the promotion of women as being athletic and strong. Having said that, it remains essential that self-expression is at the forefront of fashion, starkly opposing the uniformity of a sports teams’ strip. It could also be said that the body-con silhouette of many sports kits detracts from the positive impacts of sport on mental and physical health, by focusing on aesthetics rather than strength. Fundamentally, for the holistic wellbeing of athletes and fashionistas alike, we must maintain a clear difference between our sportswear and our fashion.
Photo by Craig Lovelidge on Unsplash.
