Sweats Remade on the Runway
Regis Colin Berthelier/Nowfashion
Rita Ora was traveling quasi-incognito when she was snapped this year at La International Airport wearing outsize shades, a blush-tone carryall, Air Jordans and a ideal sweatshirt, its hood pulled seductively over her brow.
Olivia Wilde lately strode the same passageways, the picture of ease in a biker coat... and sweatshirt, as did Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, who sallied toward the airport lounge putting on a dark fedora and... hey now, you know the refrain.
At the airport terminal, a hub for the paparazzi, who tend to treat its fluid corridors like a makeshift red carpet, off-duty models and Hollywood A-listers have been flaunting their own sweatshirts with careless élan, wearing versions embellished with eye-catching slogans, toons and jewels and pretty florettes or, alternately, opting for standard issue, raglan-sleeve varieties meant to signal, one suspects, that the wearer is just like you and me.
Clearly people relate, which may be why this cozy insignia of slacker chic, once available to furtive cigarette jaunts to the 7-Eleven or late nights on the sofa, binge-watching “Revenge, ” has become the would-be style-setter’s trophy of choice, an item for all seasons - and occasions.
Its transition from non-descript wardrobe standby, the fashion equivalent associated with mac and cheese, to luxurious fashion mainstay now seems to have been basically inevitable. “The world of luxury has gone somewhat casual, ” said Milton Pedraza, chief executive of the Luxury Institute, a consulting firm. “A lot of people do not see sweatshirts as basic items anymore. ”
Conversely, Mr. Pedraza mentioned, “a lot of basic items have gone premium. ” He may have had in mind the splendid interpretations of this humble item that appeared on fall runways and are provided by Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and Barneys New York and on upscale websites. Prices veer from $30 for an orchid-printed top by Altuzarra for Target to a lot more than $4, 400 for a Fendi version ornamented with fake fur, felt, swaths of mesh and crystal, but then, who’s counting?
Such gussied-up sweats can play down one’s wealth while conferring enough raffishness to suggest that you is too young, too prodigiously gifted or simply too chic to go in for the 9-to-5 uniform. Indeed, these days the only thing inelegant about this once unexceptional garment is actually its name. And even that has had an upgrade.
Statement sweats, as they’re recognized in fashion-speak, emerged on the runways over two years ago, making their presentación on the runway at Givenchy in the form of a photo-collage sweatshirt, followed last drop with a Bambi-print variation that became an instant fashion hit. The look gained grip in the spring with the parade of high-end sweatshirts at Theory, Kenzo as well as Alexander Wang, whose white shirt, cheekily inscribed with a “Parental Advisory” story, was a fashion editor’s favorite.
Such as biker jackets, sneakers and skinny denim jeans before them, statement sweats have proved their own staying power.
“Today it would be a misnomer to use the word ‘trend’ in reference to the sweatshirt,” said Tomoko Ogura, the senior fashion director at Barneys. Ever-evolving, it is now cut in sophisticated fabrics, including but by no means confined to cashmere, chiffon, organza, leather and lace, and offered in varying textures and shapes. So lavishly garnished are some that they are hard to place as sweatshirts at all. Yet consumers are responding, Ms. Ogura said, “because, while the designer’s hand is apparent, their utility is not compromised.”
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