Sunday, August 24, 2008

Sporty Fashion at the Olympics

The euphoria of recent Olympic victories has not only slithered into the thumping heartbeats of athletes and coaches but has also crept into the steady admiration of fans, supporters, enthusiasts and viewers worldwide. The Beijing Olympics is an event that everyone, in some way, has creatively identified with. The global sporting extravaganza brought out drawn awareness in people not normally predisposed to national pride and levels of sporting interest. The fact is that Olympic fever has a habit of creeping up in point-up corners and one such bend is the fashion world.

Olympics 2008 offered the best opportunity for visibility. The collaboration between fashion and sports, with joint ventures between athletes and labels other than Nike, Adidas, Converse, Puma, Asics, Reebok, Speedo, Diadora, Umbro, Fila, Spandex, and New Balance is nothing new. Fashion has the freedom of creativity, while sportswear has the knowledge of the best fabrics to make items functional. The upshot is greater sports awareness and participation, more creative expression and enthusiasm, quality training accessories and materials, enhanced pride and glory in achievements, as well as better opportunities for business, entrepreneurship and employment. It has become a global mission for sports and fashion to come together to do something good, despite the political drama surrounding the games.

Beijing Olympics showed the scope of these two worlds’ commingling in a number of guises, illustrating how far-reaching their mutual influence really is. From the realms of high fashion to the mainstream, fashion and sports have far more in common than you might assume. The relationship between contemporary fashion and global sportswear brands have been inspired by street style and have been working in closer collaboration in recent years. The link between fashion and sport is undeniable, even the fashion heavyweights such as Ralph Lauren, Polo, Lacoste, and Fred Perry have history in sporting activities of various types. If you think fashion and sport are unlikely teammates, Beijing Olympics Opening doubles as the sportiest catwalk on earth, the wisdom being that, in appealing to a huge, new audience, sports brand’s own label would reap the benefits. The link is even more noticeable in the street fashion scene with dominant sport's companies like Adidas and Nike pretty much owning the game with vintage re-releases and limited editions.

There’s no excuse for poor shapes and bad colors, they don’t make you run faster. Designing sportswear perceives no compromise; it should keep pushing till it gets the best results – just like Olympic athletes. What the athletes wear may not be quite as important as how fast they will run, but, with an unprecedented worldwide audience of more than four billion viewers, that’s a huge amount of brand exposure. Today, fashion needs sport and sport needs fashion. In an increasingly casual world, how many people wear couture? But the sportswear giants now face the opposite challenge: over-distribution has threatened to make their garments too ubiquitous – thus their need for an injection of style savvy. When you’re working out, you don’t have to look like rubbish. Fashion keeps the true sports performance there and complements its needs.

Fashion sense has played a role in sportswear today. Women athletes and delegates at the Beijing Olympics generally showed national pride in the modern or unique print. American Olympic team looked sporty and sophisticated, the image that they would like to voice out. Canada flashed modern sensuality. It’s true that Summer Olympics are all about running harder, jumping higher and swimming faster, but looking better is important, too. The business target is making sportswear fashionable as well as performance-friendly. Athleticism was not the only one on display at the Olympics. Outstanding personal, national and international qualities were carried on display from the bleachers to TV screens and newsprints around the world. Fashion in Sports kicks off the complexities in human undertakings into a more tangible, descriptive and gainful level.

Assuming you're not head to toe in made-to-order outfit and a pair of wingtips it's an almost certainty that you're wearing some kind of sportswear, unless of course you're reading this article naked. Check out the slideshow below and see for yourself the extent of sporty fashion at the 2008 Olympics:

Fashion And The Olympics
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: olympics fashion)





1 comment:

popular.style said...

I'll say Michael Phelps was a good model for his swim wear...After all his just not a brilliant athlete but can be a great model... Trendy clothing really showed up in the recent Olympics..Sporty Fashion at the Olympics indeed..