WHEN SPORTS MET FASHION...

Athletes as muses? The stadium as runway? The arena as front row? Fashion and sport needed no introduction, but lately they've become obsessed. Maya Singer reports.

- Maya Singer

I've been sports-pilled. I'm not sure when it started, but I can tell you when I knew: The Olympics were winding down, I was watching rhythmic gymnastics, and it struck me with a pang that in a matter of days there would be no more of this, this pageant of human effort and excellence. No more synchronized diving. No more twirling shot-putters or pole-vaulters flying backward through the air. Farewell to the impassive, agile grapplers, and to the whiplash pleasure of a badminton rally. Or-wait-I interrupted myself. Tennis! Tennis has rallies! How many days until the US Open? Could I make it until then?

I guess everyone's been sportspilled. Because, wow, the Open was a scene Taylor Swift, Kendall Jenner, movie stars, and influencers everywhere. Maybe they'd all gotten really into Challengers. Or maybe this was part and parcel of a turn in the zeitgeist, which is what I suspect. Because around the same time, the spring 2025 fashion season was underway, and it was like you couldn't throw a stone without hitting a sports star. Gymnasts, sprinters, basketball players, footballers, boxers perching their muscular butts on seats at Michael Kors, Tommy Hilfiger, Carolina Herrera, Burberry, Bottega Veneta. And more. I even spotted dapper fencer Miles Chamley-Watson at Fendi. So this isn't just about tennis. But-returning for a moment to the US Open-consider the destiny of the two men who played the final. Not long after concluding their showdown at Arthur Ashe, both flew to Milan, where Jannik Sinner sat front row at Gucci, and Taylor Fritz walked the runway at Boss. Meanwhile, up in the stands, Taylor Swift was watching that Fritz-Sinner match with her NFL-star boyfriend Travis Kelce and his Kansas City Chiefs teammate Patrick Mahomes, who'd turned up camera-ready in, respectively, Gucci and Prada.