When Juicy Couture took over the trend landscape in the late 1990s, original founders Gela-Nash Taylor and Pamela Skaist-Levy knew from the get-go they were poking fun at high fashion. The duo's line of fitted, sexy tracksuits—the latter definitely a first—came from of all places, Los Angeles, which did not have the same fashion street cred at the time that it does now. To include Couture in the name said it all. Worn by all the right celebrities of the moment like Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Madonna, and J.Lo—who loved the look so much she launched her own quite similar clothing line—helped fuel its popularity.
Like a lot of things, Juicy Couture was a victim of its own success, and once malls in middle America became bombarded by average ladies sporting the often rhinestone-encrusted "Juicy," the rage lost steam. But as the saying goes, what goes around comes around and a bevy of Kardashian-crazed Gen Z's are helping to bring back the fitted, low-rise flare pant and shrunken zip hoodie tracksuits back into vogue once more. The founding designers would go to launch a new collection, Skaist-Taylor, in the mid-2000s, which debuted at NYFW, and the Juicy Couture name enjoyed some success in accessories when Calvin Klein President Michelle Kessler Sanders joined in 2005 and parlayed the brand's DNA into a catchy line of bags and jewellery.
Perhaps fuelled by last Spring's Vetements collaboration, this season the brand—which has enlisted celeb stylist Jamie Mizrahi as creative director—held its first-ever runway show for Fall/Winter 2018. Out to prove there is more to Juicy than a tracksuit, the stylist-turned-designer opened the show with retro-inspired dresses and outerwear mainly but didn't forget the staple, showing a new larger proportion in '70s tie-dyes and early-80s velour colour-block versions.
But Mizrahi wasn't the only one to reinvent the tracksuit this season. Adidas paired up with Daniëlle Cathari, a Dutch fashion student who showed a line of reconstructed track ensembles from the brand for her class project last year. Alchimia di Ballin, a new favourite of Gigi Hadid and a slew of digital influencers showed a track pant-style patent leather boot for Spring 2018. And Puma's celebrity designer, Rihanna has certainly added cache to that ubiquitous leisurewear line.
While the iconic California lifestyle tracksuits may have fuelled the ath-leisure movement, it certainly wasn't the first go-round. As far back as the mid 1970s, Danskin, known to mainly to ballerinas and gymnasts of the era, became a disco staple with the leotard and matching wrap skirt ensembles sported by Donna Summer wannabes. Next came the Flashdance look. Who can forget Jennifer Beals in her customised grey sweat shirt with the neckline cut out? Paired with a Dance France leotard, a rolled-top pair of matching sweatpants, leg warmers, and high-top Reebok leather sneakers, she did more for fleece than Jack Lalanne and Champion put together. Though perhaps the stylings of Norma Kamali, known mainly for her silk nylon parachute clothes and sleeping bag coats, who also pioneered layered Lyrca garments, inspired the steel-worker-turned-professional-dancer's look as well.
As the 1980s rolled on, so did the popularity of the rap and hip-hop, which extended beyond just the music. Recently Baz Luhrmann traced the origins of this look to the birthplace of hip-hop in the South Bronx in the short-lived Netflix series The Get Down. The looks, which included lots of Adidas-inspired tracksuits dolled up with gold chains and fly sneakers (read accessories cash cow) inspired the current Resort 2018 collection of Valentino designer Pier Paolo Piccioli, who is an avid fan of the series.
Early divas of hip-hop Salt-N-Pepa and Missy Elliot went on to popularise athletic wares as fashion with the performing artists regularly sporting track pants, sweat suits, baseball bombers, and spandex unitards along the way. Urban streetwear brands including Fubu, Enyce, Ecko Unlimited, and Phat Farm further drove home the notion that a tracksuit was a fashion statement in the early aughts. Sean John, aka P Diddy's infamous streetwear collection, even made it on the NYFW calendar with a show that basically invented the concept of fashion show attendance pandemonium.
With brands like Fila going pin-on Playboy bunny and X-Factor reject Chloe Khan or looking sporty sexy on singer Rita Ora or Kappa and Champion re-appearing on just about everyone in the Kardashian/Jenner clan, it's no wonder'90s era tracksuits are on the rise. Even Umbro—those tracks suits favoured by coaches everywhere—are highly coveted by millennials and the coming-fast-on-their-heels Gen Z populace were aided and abetted by Off-White's Virgil Abloh. And surely Juicy Couture, whose original logo consisted of two terriers flanked holding a shield beneath a crown, may take the reins again.
