KEY POINTS:
Sport and fashion have been playing an unbroken rally in recent years. Whack! Fashion designers like McQueen and McCartney make special ranges for big sportswear giants. Whack! In turn, the catwalks adapt the technical details and innovative new fabrics developed for the track and field. Whack! In April, PPR, the parent company of luxury fashion labels including Gucci and YSL, surprised analysts by purchasing German sportswear brand Puma.
No wonder then, that this summer the sports-inspired trend is on stronger form than ever.
Racer-back details, high-visibility colours, tracksuit trousers and hoods emerged on the catwalk (most prominently at DKNY, Jean Paul Gaultier and Marni) and on the high street. Streamlined athletic design is stealthily overtaking girlie frills and fussiness. And yet authentic sports icons who could pass muster as fashion leaders are few.
With its quick-drying fabrics that are invariably plastered with sponsors logos, professional sportswomen's clothing rarely kicks off a trend. So the special moments when style and fashion really begin to work in synch, whether championed by a real sportsman or a famous amateur, are well worth celebrating.
Paul Smith
Women Spring/Summer 2007
Golf and fashion don't make natural bedfellows. Think hideous pastel-coloured Argyle tank-tops, or the skort, a skirt-shorts hybrid favoured by lady golfers.
It also doesn't help that, despite a recent EU directive intended to outlaw sexism at clubs, golf remains a male-dominated sport.
Yet despite the worst sartorial efforts of celebrity golfers such as Jodie Kidd (who wears knitted trousers to tee off) and Jessica Alba (fleece jackets), style is beginning to find a place on the fairway. American pro Michelle Wie looked sleek last year in close-fitting black polo shirts and trousers.
At the 9th Annual Michael Douglas and Friends Celebrity Golf Tournament in April, Catherine Zeta-Jones triumphed in a crisply relaxed all-white ensemble. Paul Smith Women's similarly preppy-yet-relaxed tailoring is also an ace.
Jean Paul Gaultier
While the Olympic track has had Flo-Jo's multicoloured fingernails, Cathy Freeman's hooded jumpsuits and Zola Budd's barefoot charm as high points, the part-time jogger had no similar style examples to follow. None, that is, until Madonna (right) began to run in public.
Usually accessorised with two burly henchmen flanking her, the fitness-obsessed singer made the baggy, blokeish adidas tracksuit an unlikely trend.
The tomboy charms of the look appear to have inspired her old friend Jean Paul Gaultier this season, who transformed the sadistic PE-teacher staple into a hooded dress.
Hussein Chalayan
Spring/Summer 2007
Even before Venus' Spandex dresses and Roger's blazers, fashion has been synonymous with tennis. Rene Lacoste, Fred Perry and Bjorn Borg have all cashed in on its glamorous image. But female style icons have been more rare.
The plain T-shirt, white cap and shorts worn by Wimbledon No1 seed Justine Henin are more Holmes Place duty-manager than Miss Joan Hunter Dunn. She is missing a trick.
The little white dress is the ultimate tennis style statement, and nobody wore it better than Chris Evert. Translated into fashion, it looks freshest at Hussein Chalayan, or chic at Chanel with box pleats and a kilo of costume jewellery.
Marni
Spring/Summer 2007
In popular perception, before keen amateur Cameron Diaz was regularly photographed paddling out, women in surf were just bikini babes watching on from the shallows.
Earlier this year in Hawaii, the comic actress got over former beau Justin Timberlake by slipping into a neoprene top and catching a wave with pin-up and surf legend Kelly Slater. Nice work, Cameron.
Despite its somewhat bulky texture, neoprene is a key trend at Marni this season, where the cult label's designer Consuelo Castiglioni has moved on from her bohemian look by introducing athletic leggings and zippered wetsuit tops.
Neat little click-and-lock belts on Christopher Kane's neon minidresses were also reminiscent of watersports gear. Surf's not only up, but in.
Dries Van Noten
A perennial favourite with designers over the past century, nautical chic usually summons up images of wide-legged navy-blue trousers and a little sailor jacket.
But this season fashion is full of lightweight, hooded wet-weather parkas - the best are at Dries Van Noten - that suggest a source of ocean-going inspiration more contemporary than HMS Pinafore.
Since both Prada and Louis Vuitton have or had interests in the America's Cup, the connection seems entirely natural although ocean-going muses are rare.
- Independent
