SPECIAL REPORT
of the future: Sportswear
SARA McDONNELL spoke to Claudine Rousseau, course leader of the Fashion Sportswear BA course at the London College of Fashion, along with some of its graduates, to find out
S
total active sportswear and athletic footwear in 2003 amounted to US$145 billion, meaning that at the time, US$23 was spent on behalf of every man, woman and child in the world. It’s big in the UK too; Key Note
portswear is a huge market. Trade website
JustStyle.com estimated the world market for
LCF’s Fashion Sportswear (formerly known as Active Sportswear) BA what the difference in focus is between her course compared to other fashion courses. “I think it makes designers think a bit
estimates that in 2011 the total sportswear market reached a value of £4.71bn, and apparently in 2012, it grew in value by 5.4 per cent. The sportswear market is important to
printwear; developments in sportswear are often reflected in promotional garments. Indeed, a great deal of promotional garments are sportswear items themselves – from polo shirts, rugby tops and sweatshirts to baseball caps, hoodies and ski jackets. While blank imprintable garments may be
more generic in style, due to customers needing consistency in their supplies, they are undoubtedly influenced by sportswear fashion, which in turn is influenced by both leaps forward in technology and trends in retail fashion. And the students coming out of fashion colleges up and down the UK are likely to be the designers steering those trends. Surprisingly, given the size of the market,
there are very few specialised degree courses in sportswear design. London College of Fashion (LCF) runs
one, as does Falmouth College. I asked Claudine Rousseau, course leader of
| 84 | January 2014
more,” she says. “You really have to balance the fashion and the function. Fashion is important because people have to have a desire to wear it. It’s making sure you've created that balance between the two.” Students on the course look at the range
of clothes that can come under ‘sportswear’, from high performance garments to lifestyle garments.
Functionality “I try to give students a real thought
process when they’re designing,” says Rousseau. “They may need to consider, for example, the climatic considerations of where the sport is undertaken – looking from the base layers to the outer shell. “Then there are fashion trends that will
impact on colour, shape and details. Form follows function, but they have to first identify what the function is. If the function is for it to be fashionable then particular body constraints have a different weighting of importance.’ After taking in all of these considerations,
students then need to come up with something fresh and forward thinking. “For them, the idea is that they're able to
work out a process, to think like a product designer,” Rousseau explains. As with all product design, new
technology always has an impact, and
students naturally embrace the range of technical fabrics now available to sportswear designers, offering improved performance such as breathability and moisture management within the garments. “Schoeller is a brand that our students
love because every fabric they do has a technical angle to it,” Rousseau says. “They love anything that’s techy. Some
are particularly interested in flourescent or high-vis fabrics and all that they can do.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, many students
are keen to explore sustainability issues associated with product design. “We are constantly looking at recycled
fibres; the use of recycled coffee beans mixed with polyester, for example,” says Rousseau. She also talks of the ‘hidden technology’
in fabrics – that which you can't see but can feel once you're wearing it. “This is really where branding comes into
play with the swing tags, to tell you this is what it's going to do,” she says. “You have to engage with it and wear it to really get that it does whatever it professes to do.” Many students on the course are
interested in the printing process. “Students often want give their garments an edge by printing on them,” Rousseau continues. “They have to think about how is that
print going to work, is it going to stretch or will it be another barrier? Weight is another major consideration.’” Sportswear is known for its strong
branding and the importance of labels and
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
What will the sportswear designers of the future be bringing to the sportswear market?
Designers
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