The influence of activewear

The influence of activewear has gone beyond nitty-gritty sports since at least the 19th century when women started wearing split skirts for biking, explains Colleen Hill, co-curator of an exhibit at The Museum at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) called “Sporting Life”: Think of the men’s tweed hunting jacket that became the uniform for college professors, the dancewear that turned into streetwear in the disco era and the sexy scuba dresses that were a favorite of the 1990s supermodels.

Figure skating, yachting and skiing seem to be endless sources of inspiration for designers and favorites of consumers who probably have never actually laced up, booted up, or hoisted a sail. Yet who could resist a camel-colored wool skating-style ensemble — cape and all — with black Persian lamb trim?

The aspirational aspect complements the whole fashion-as-fantasy thing that also sometimes has city-dwellers adopting the look of country-club cricket players, and suburbanites dressing like downtown nightclub-goers. In that context, Ralph Lauren’s safari jacket, Jean Paul Gaultier’s rayon-and-polyester football jumpsuit and even Isabel Toledo’s gray gym-teacher dress with a funnel neckline and fluid skirt don’t seem so crazy.

And, real women continue to wear monokinis on the beach, which was one scandalous step away from a dominatrix get-up when Rudi Gernreich created the breast-baring one-piece suit in 1964.

The swimwear section of the exhibit is a reminder of just how far the collective eye has come when it comes to revealing the body. Silk bathing boots from the 1910s are a far cry from today’s standard-issue flip-flops, and there isn’t anything similar about head-to-toe wool bathing costumes from the turn of the 20th century and the suit with a black mesh bodice by Cole of California in the 1960s.

Yet, Hill notes, in those intervening years swimwear designers made it possible for people, and women in particular, to transition from being mere recreational bathers to actual swimmers. “As we moved into more stretch fabrics and a fit closer to the body, it allowed women a more active interest in swimming,” she explains.