FINE FORM

Sports, fashion and femininity join forces for a culture-defining ménage à trois.

- ARUSHI SINHA

LIKE FASHION, SPORT has a penchant for the dramatic. Just think of Venus Williams walking into this year's US Open dressed in Prada, Alaïa and Bvlgari diamonds, or the fact that the 2024 Women's FIFA World Cup witnessed the Chinese national team in bespoke suits by Prada, with Emporio Armani outfitting their Italian counterparts. The confluence of fashion and sport isn't the unlikeliest of alliances-history is littered with examples of star athletes whose style helped change the fashion lexicon forever. Stan Smith's legendary Adidas shoe debuted in 1973 and has been in production ever since, Michael Jordan's prolific partnership with Nike launched in 1984 and reshaped the sneaker industry, and decades prior in 1933, French tennis player René Lacoste redeveloped a shirt originating in 1850s India to birth the modern polo. What feels different about the current moment, however, is that for the first time in the shared history of sport and fashion, women are finally being allowed to take their rightful position as vanguards.