Active – Performance Sportswear

Sports invoke pure emotions: victory and loss, suffering, despair, euphoria, pain, or relief. Sports have seeped into almost all areas of life, even fashion, yet performance sportswear does not play a very significant role in fashion design schools. Performance sportswear offers appealing challenges with enormous potential for innovation. Each sports discipline has different motion profiles, values and identification factors with their own special code. Innovative materials and new manufacturing methods, often leading to a new kind of aesthetic, have a lot of impact. The challenge is increased even more by issues like ultra-light equipment, protection, specialized designs for women or seniors, or ecofriendly and society-appropriate apparel.

The European Fashion Award – FASH 2012 featuring the title “Active – Performance Sportswear” is looking for sportswear for competitive, endurance, training (exercise) or fitness sports (physical activity), combining the best possible function with an appropriate level of fashion, all wrapped up in meaningful and appropriate design. The selection of the sports discipline and skill level – professional or amateur – is the participant’s choice. Simple sportswear, meaning apparel with a sporty look, is not acceptable. Thanks to its complexity “Performance Sportswear” is a particularly interesting subject for inter-disciplinary projects or collaboration between different segments such as fashion and industrial design, yet also the garment technology sector, as well as textile and communication design.