UK sports fashion graduates get futuristic
The first students to study for a BA in Fashion Sportswear at the UK-based London College of Fashion will graduate this year and have revealed their ‘fabrics of the future’.
“This is the hidden side of fashion that’s emerging from the shadows of traditional men’s and womenswear,” said course leader Claudine Rousseau, who as a former design consultant worked with brands such as Puma and Musto.
“Style is important but to be a sportswear designer you must have a technical mindset,” she said. “Students must understand how the body needs to move to excel at different sporting disciplines and create garments that can withstand extreme weather conditions, are lightweight and come with antimicrobial features. The fabric, cut, construction and weight must all work in tandem to produce the best possible athletic performance.”
24-year-old LCF sportswear student Komal Khuti designed skateboard clothing. “I’ve always been interested in the practicality of clothing. This course helps you create functional clothing that doesn’t necessarily look overly technical – so it still has mass appeal to the public. People are realising that you don’t have to put on a costume to do sport.”
Ms Khuti has created seemingly traditional chinos that have moisture-wicking properties and are designed to go with a plaid print varsity jacket that’s also waterproof and includes hidden pockets for phones and keys.
Margarita Ruiz, 24, created clothing for cycling in the city. Her hooded jacket is made of a waterproof fabric that helps the wearer stay sweat-free yet keeps the body comfortably warm in cold weather and comes with a flap to feed iPod headphones through. The accompanying trousers, which look like traditional tweed, are waterproof, stretchy, repel oil stains and come with a poppered ankle strap to narrow the leg at the ankle.
For more extreme outdoor pursuits, Sylwia Blaszczyk, 27, designed a uniform for the Polish Mountain Rescue Team. Based on the original Polish rescue team’s uniform of 1912, her red and black jacket and trousers allow for the free movement required by those on an emergency call out, whilst keeping them comfortably warm in temperatures as low as -20 degrees Centigrade.
“Clothing that’s sustainable, recyclable and is made using locally sourced materials is also going to become more important to the consumer,” said 24- year-old Sophie Watkins, whose final project features an eco-friendly snowboarding jacket.
Ms Rousseau said: “People are starting to realise that sportswear doesn’t have to be grey marl and tracksuits. In the future we’ll see more collaboration with product innovators to produce the kind of sportswear technology we’ve come to expect from gadgets.”
