Tuesday, July 09, 2013

The Influence of Sportswear on Fashion and Popular Culture





The relationship between the clothes we wear and the culture amongst which we live is a symbiotic one, with each taking a large amount of influence from the other. This past summer, the Olympic Games in London allowed us to witness a near perfect display of this relationship in action.
Not only did spectators notice the presence of the fashion industry within the games themselves, but in the months surrounding the games we saw sportswear having a profound effect on every day, high street fashion.
Here, we take a closer look at the ways in which sportswear is able to interact with both fashion and popular culture.
The Team GB Design

In a move which saw sports wear, fashion and culture brought spectacularly close, the outfit for the Great Britain Olympic Team of 2012 was designed by fashion designer Stella McCartney. This move not only highlighted the significance of the outfit's design but was responsible for sportswear reclaiming a place in both high street and high-end fashion for the first time in over a decade.
 The Olympic Effect
The effect the Olympic Games had on high street fashion and popular culture was not due solely to the design of the Team GB outfits. Instead, we saw a wider trend which corresponded to the overall mood of the country.

There are few better ways to show your support for something than in the clothes that you wear. From the very beginning of 2012, people around Britain were expressing their support of the Olympics through their clothing; they were not one of the naysayers who saw it as a social disaster and a waste of resources.

As newspapers, media stations and politicians all strived to encourage the nation's population to support native athletes, a new, if somewhat bland and contrived, patriotism was born that would last for several months.

Sports Stars Modeling

There are few better ways to blend industries than for those industries' icons to move easily between the two. This has brought the worlds of sport and fashion together innumerable times, with sports stars at the top of their game often making tracks into the world of modelling or sometimes even going as far as to dabble with design. Serena Williams, David Beckham and Tom Brady are all excellent examples of stars who work equally well in both fields.

The designs either created or promoted by these sports personalities are invariably linked to sportswear, though the market is becoming broader all of the time. With few other types of clothing being so lucky to have their own group of icons willing to promote, it should come as no surprise that sportswear is amongst the most popular clothing choices in Britain today.
Throughout time, sportswear has played a respectable and considerable role in the world of fashion. Events like the Olympics only go to bolster this fact further.

About the author: 


This article was written by Jason Hedman, a freelance blogger who writes for www.cliftonclothing.com, providers of high quality sportswear.