Now Trending: On Your Marks

Posted by Julia Neel

Gimme an O! Gimme an L! Gimme a Y! Gimme a M-P-I-C-S! What does it spell?! It spells a summer of sporty collections from designers inspired by the upcoming Olympic Games.

It makes sense that this summer designers would be inspired by athleticism and all things sporty to create collections designed with winning in mind. They looked to the track and field, the gym, the pool, velodrome, American football pitch, tennis courts, and surf schools for references and came back with clothes that are at once fit and feminine.

Isabel Marant offered a goal-scoring counterpoint to all the sweet pastel tones and ladylike shapes on her catwalk with football jumpers emblazoned with players’ numbers. Worn with sleek running trousers or little denim shorts and an anorak, these were low-maintenance cool and had all the sexy appeal of borrowing your boyfriend’s clothes.

At Versus, Christopher Kane took basket and netball as his starting points, bringing cut-away shoulders and pleated skirts with contrasting insides into play. The raglan sleeves on Marc Jacobs’ catwalk, meanwhile, called to mind American Varsity jackets and old school tracksuit tops – the kind of thing Michael Carrington wore around the running track in Grease II. Teamed with ruched pencil skirts, socks and loafers, the look was jock-meets-librarian and typical of Jacobs’ off-kilter approach.

Go-faster stripes down the sides of trousers were seen at Pringle, Gucci, Lanvin and Antonio Berardi, giving an athletic edge to the collections, while cycling shorts were worn under sporty little dresses and A-line skirts for a fresh and modern take on layering.

The trend’s high-tech, performance feel was seen in peek-a-boo mesh panels at Hakaan, Stella McCartney, BCBG Max Azria and Vera Wang. And Victoria Beckham, Lacoste and DKNY took almost-neon colours as their palette – get-noticed shades that’ll put style points on the board in no time.

The rules of play:

1. If you don’t want to look like an off-duty coach, wear with heels. Ideally, these will be on the fierce side of things. This is not a game that you can cut corners in.

2. Just like in your school netball matches, hair should be unfussy and nails neat and trim.

3. For night games, racer-back tops and cutaways are sexiest in monochrome hues.

If in doubt, look to Liya Kebede, who’s the undisputed champion of this look in black and white with no-nonsense heels.

Go, team, GO!

Shop our pick of sports-inspired pieces here.