At the Celine show last Sunday, guests were taken outside of Paris to Parc de Saint-Cloud; but looking at the clothes, you might think you were in New York.
That was thanks to the distinctly American aesthetic that creative director Michael Rider, who is from Washington, DC, doubled down on after playing on sportswear in his July debut. This season, models walked the runway in tailored blazers and skinny jeans, wore colour-block jersey-like tops and some even carried Celine-branded helmets. It was a twist on American prep that stood out in a sprawling French park.
Back in the city, it was clear that Rider isn’t alone in his current penchance for the wearable. Perhaps, it was the Americans in Paris — Rider’s sophomore show for Celine; Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez’s Loewe debut — that brought with them this American sportswear sensibility. But at Jonathan Anderson’s Dior womenswear debut, the ode to the preppy was also unmissable, from shrunken polos to denim mini skirts with (also denim) shirts neatly tucked in. Even Haider Ackermann for Tom Ford’s slinky, sexy standout show had its share of sweaters draped across the shoulders of crisp white shirts and blazers. Across the board, in Milan and Paris, collections were more prepped up than is typical for the cities.
This injection of American sportswear, by way of polos and double-breasted blazers, was a departure from what we saw on the aesthetic’s home turf. At New York Fashion Week, there were less takes on sportswear than usual. Veronica Leoni’s second collection for Calvin Klein opted for a higher concept. Diotima’s Rachel Scott, once best known for her mix of classic tailoring and crochet, leaned into fuller skirts and inventive shapes.
“We’ve noticed a clear directional shift,” says Tiffany Hsu, chief buying and group fashion venture officer of Mytheresa at LuxExperience. “American brands like Calvin Klein leaned more towards minimal tailoring this season, steering away from their traditional sportswear roots. In contrast, European houses such as Saint Laurent, Loewe and Miu Miu have incorporated sport-inspired silhouettes — windbreakers, track styles and utility elements — into their collections.”
This European embrace of sportswear is a sign of a shifting industry, says Katie Devlin, fashion trends editor at intelligence firm Stylus. “Fashion is overall moving towards a more mature mindset, favouring a grown-up mood and more sophisticated styling,” Devlin says, noting that brands are veering away from youth culture and the viral trends of recent years. “Plus, conservatism and traditionalism are rising globally — not least in the US — and the effects of this have been trickling into wardrobes for a while now,” she adds.
It may be a step away from fast-moving trends, but Hsu reads this shift as a bid to capture the spend of younger, more mobile consumers seeking versatility for their wardrobes. “It’s an interesting way to inject daywear into luxury,” she says.
Amid a fraught political context in the States, where notions of Americanness are complicated by rising conservatism, American sportswear takes on a more loaded meaning. But for brands catering to those well beyond the States, it’s an aesthetic worth interrogating and offering for its commercial viability — especially as consumers’ preferences are shifting, shaped, in part, by the desire to ‘dress down’ and the global rise of wellness and athleisure. For those disillusioned by luxury and have pulled back spend in recent years, could this embrace of the normal entice them back?
A degree of separation
The sportswear aesthetic becomes more notable to shoppers when it’s coming from European houses, experts say. This is especially true when it marks a departure from a brand’s usual aesthetic. “When traditionally formal or heritage-driven brands like Celine or Dior introduce sportswear elements, it creates a moment of novelty and intrigue for the customer,” Hsu says. The trick, she adds, is for a brand to convincingly translate this aesthetic into its existing luxury codes.
Anderson did this well, buyers and executives agree following his womenswear debut. “One of Jonathan’s biggest strengths is reinterpreting the past in an extremely modern and feminine way — the way he reworked Monsieur Dior’s codes feels so contemporary,” Christian Dior chair and CEO Delphine Arnault said after the show. Roopal Patel, SVP and fashion director for Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus, called out the “effortless cool of all the denim pieces”, appreciative of Anderson’s merging of lower-key codes with more elevated pieces.
Interpretations from brands outside the US can inject a fresh energy into the sportswear look, Devlin adds. “Especially for younger consumers who may seek a more rebellious and subversive take on heritage sports and preppy Americana,” she says.
It’s easier for European brands to reinterpret American codes and explore what heritage and nostalgia mean in a global context, by virtue of being further from their roots, says Dan Hastings-Narayanin, deputy foresight editor at The Future Laboratory. “The Americana look is both safe and seductive from a European distance: it embodies freedom and authenticity without being tied to America’s current political tensions,” he says.
Conservative commercialism
This safety, experts agree, extends well beyond politics. Though the conservative shift undoubtedly plays a role in the ways in which designers lean into (or away from) sportswear, what it ultimately comes down to is safety of sales.
Interest in sportswear is up, says Mytheresa’s Hsu. “Our data shows consistent growth in the performance and athleisure categories, particularly from brands that straddle the line between technical function and fashion-forward design,” she says. Windbreakers were a standout this season, Hsu says, flagging Saint Laurent, Loewe and Miu Miu. “We’re confident this category will perform exceptionally well in the coming months.”
Preppy looks continue to have serious commercial appeal, Devlin agrees. “It’s more about a lean into heritage sports and mature, tradition-led lifestyles than an overt — or overtly conscious — emulation of Americana,” she says.
Even so, at its root, the wearability of these styles is distinctly American. Stylist and editor-in-chief of Interview Magazine Mel Ottenberg got at this idea post-Loewe. “We really need some pragmatism and desire in fashion right now,” he said following the debut. “American fashion historically, when it works, is pragmatic and sharp, focused and modern and energetic.”
It’s also a practical response to an unsteady cultural climate in Europe, says Louis Pisano, author of Discoursted Substack (and an American in Paris himself). “The atmosphere in Europe is not as optimistic as it is [in the] dominant cultural ideology in the US, which is conservatism and MAGA,” he says. “So people don’t really want to dress up here.” In Pisano’s view, brands are responding to a desire not to do too much in public. “They’re more trying to design for the realism of today.”
Yet, to fully grasp this Euro shift to pragmatism, Hastings-Narayanin encourages a look not towards the United States, but to Asia-Pacific. “The sportswear aesthetic we’re seeing on European runways is a strategic response to global market demand, particularly from the Asia-Pacific region,” she says, pointing to the emergence of wellness as both a lifestyle and a status symbol across Asia — from female fitness booming in India, to the aestheticisation of golf in South Korea. “European brands are responding to a new class of high-net-worth consumers who want to signal wellness as part of their identity,” he says.
Though luxury has long flirted with sportswear, what’s new now is the precision of harnessing this aesthetic as a global strategy, Hastings-Narayanin says. “For European houses, this aesthetic isn’t about the US or its politics,” he explains, “it’s about understanding where the next wave of luxury consumption is happening and translating the visual codes of sport and wellness into luxury language for the Asia-Pacific consumer.”
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