Sport is an integral part of many people’s lives, as both recreation and entertainment. It is also a sizeable sector with political and economic ramifications in the present world.
Sportswear is subject to unique demands, issues and concerns. It’s often employed in extreme physical and ecological performance conditions with requirements for covering and assisting the busy body. Not only must it shield the body from intense physical surroundings as is the case with extreme sports, but it must also protect the body from the impurities connected with extreme bodily exertion. Aesthetics gradually entered into the picture with colours and patterns used to distinguish players and teams, seizing the attention of the audiences.
Introducing sportswear on the catwalks of the leading fashion brands is nothing new. Chanel pioneered this trend in the 1920s with the sailor trousers. Tracksuits moved from the gymnastic stadium on to high fashion as a result of the Wimbledon tennis final between Björn Borg and John McEnroe in 1980.
Just as sportswear is predicted to be convenient and straightforward, leaving each muscle free, it has also become instrumental in emancipating people, sometimes even going so far as being a gesture of defiance. This might be gender-based defiance. However, it could also be defiance rooted in a desire to be accepted as a physical entity wishing to partake in the emotional feel-good factor of participating in active sports.
This, together with the clean design lines and sensible practicality of sportswear, has made it part of the multifold trend, commonly referred to as “modernity.”
