A look from the Exquisite Gucci runway show. Photo: Gucci
A look from the Exquisite Gucci runway show. Photo: Gucci
A look from the Exquisite Gucci runway show. Photo: Gucci
A look from the Exquisite Gucci runway show. Photo: Gucci

High-end fashion houses sprint to launch sportswear collaborations


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Models in latex suits by Balenciaga and sportswear by adidas may have raised a few eyebrows on Wall Street, but last month's stunt was the latest example of money-spinning fashion and sportswear collaborations causing a buzz online.

According to Women's Wear Daily magazine, searches for “tracksuits” and “Balenciaga” rose 25 per cent after the French-owned brand’s spring 2023 runway show stunned the New York Stock Exchange, while searches for “adidas” increased by 13 per cent.

Balenciaga and adidas's event comes hot on the heels on one of the biggest collaborations of the year, as the German sportswear giant also united with Gucci on the autumn collections runway in February.

The Italian designer’s creative director Alessandro Michele, a long-time adidas fan, cleverly merged the brands' powerful signatures into a collection labelled Exquisite Gucci.

Adidas’s trademark three white stripes complemented Gucci’s signature red and green, as did the interlocking of the two logos (the adidas trefoil and the GG monogram) into a catwalk collection that is a classic Michele mash-up. Think rigorous tailoring plus vintage and club culture dresses with sports branding.

The covetable line of accessories includes hats, bags, gloves and boots as well as famed adidas trainers — of which Michele is a huge fan.

To mark the partnership, the sporty streetwear capsule is hitting selected Gucci stores around the world, including in the UAE and online, on Tuesday, June 7.

This is a far summerier vision for men and women, which taps into an athletic vibe that has been thoroughly Guccified.

Michele draws on retro tennis and golf looks for the dresses, which feature along with tracksuits, sport jackets and underwear.The bold colours and geometric branding of the scaled-up interlocking logos are sure to keep logomaniacs happy.

Such collaborations are becoming headline events and an on-trend way of connecting luxury names with wider fans of urban fashion.

Michael Kors, better known for his city chic and glamorous eveningwear, has teamed up with Italian sportswear brand Ellesse to produce a summer capsule for tennis. A skiwear series is in the pipeline for autumn.

Designer sportwear from the Michael Kors x Ellesse collaboration. Photo: Michael Kors
Designer sportwear from the Michael Kors x Ellesse collaboration. Photo: Michael Kors

The designs are a luxurious and modern take on retro-athletic styles. Vibrant, sporty and glamorous, they tap into Kors’s memory as a night manager at a tennis club on Long Island, New York, in the 1970s before he became a designer.

He remembers how women at the time wore tennis dresses “just to show off their legs rather than play a game”, paired with a gold watch, diamond earrings and sunglasses.

“Personally, I was always a mediocre tennis player,” Kors has said. “But the two sports to me that were always glamorous, particularly when you look at images from the 1970s, were tennis and skiing. Both were a part of fast-paced jet-set life. We carried Ellesse in our pro shop [at the tennis club] and did very well with it. There was this blend of European glamour with the idea of athleticism. For me, movement is always very American.”

Like the interlocking adidas x Gucci logo, Kors’s MK monogram is reworked in the Ellesse brand's fiery colours for the print pattern. The design is emblazoned across vintage-style swimwear, shorts and backpacks, and elsewhere as an emblem on orange, navy and crisp white track jackets, pants, crop tops and trainers.

Collaborations are a shrewd way of merging famous brands to create desirable hybrids. There have been a number of design partnerships for trainers such as Air Dior and Dior Converse as well as Karl Lagerfeld and Puma.

Balmain produced a limited-edition line of boxing-inspired designs with Puma last autumn, and there has been the Fenty x Puma collaboration ranging from trainers to sporty street-style fashion at the height of the athleisure trend in 2017.

However, predating all these contemporary collaborations is adidas by Stella McCartney, which dates back to 2005. Rather than a lifestyle collection, the collaboration with McCartney was about performance sportswear.

The designer also created the kit for the eye-catching Team GB Olympics teams in 2016, produced with sustainability in mind.

A model for the Stella McCartney x adidas Agent of Kindness campaign. Photo: adidas
A model for the Stella McCartney x adidas Agent of Kindness campaign. Photo: adidas

Last year, she created did a diversity-friendly outerwear runway show, and that message about inclusivity also underpins this summer’s Agent of Kindness collection, of bold-coloured silhouettes in recycled breathable materials, which is fronted by American gymnast Nia Dennis.

McCartney says the collection embodies her ambitions “to create standout performance wear that not only looks great but provides our community with innovative pieces that facilitate high-impact activity”.

Whether such collaborations stay true to spirit of sportswear or take a brand beyond the track, they all connect with a wider audience that might otherwise have only ever worn a pair of running shorts to jog in.

FROM%20THE%20ASHES
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The Settlers

Director: Louis Theroux

Starring: Daniella Weiss, Ari Abramowitz

Rating: 5/5

It Was Just an Accident

Director: Jafar Panahi

Stars: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr

Rating: 4/5

The biog

Job: Fitness entrepreneur, body-builder and trainer

Favourite superhero: Batman

Favourite quote: We must become the change we want to see, by Mahatma Gandhi.

Favourite car: Lamborghini

SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20SAMSUNG%20GALAXY%20S24%20ULTRA
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Champions parade (UAE timings)

7pm Gates open

8pm Deansgate stage showing starts

9pm Parade starts at Manchester Cathedral

9.45pm Parade ends at Peter Street

10pm City players on stage

11pm event ends

GOLF’S RAHMBO

- 5 wins in 22 months as pro
- Three wins in past 10 starts
- 45 pro starts worldwide: 5 wins, 17 top 5s
- Ranked 551th in world on debut, now No 4 (was No 2 earlier this year)
- 5th player in last 30 years to win 3 European Tour and 2 PGA Tour titles before age 24 (Woods, Garcia, McIlroy, Spieth)

MATCH INFO

Everton 2 (Tosun 9', Doucoure 93')

Rotherham United 1 (Olosunde 56')

Man of the Match Olosunde  (Rotherham)

Tips to keep your car cool
  • Place a sun reflector in your windshield when not driving
  • Park in shaded or covered areas
  • Add tint to windows
  • Wrap your car to change the exterior colour
  • Pick light interiors - choose colours such as beige and cream for seats and dashboard furniture
  • Avoid leather interiors as these absorb more heat
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
SERIE A FIXTURES

Saturday

AC Milan v Sampdoria (2.30pm kick-off UAE)

Atalanta v Udinese (5pm)

Benevento v Parma (5pm)

Cagliari v Hellas Verona (5pm)

Genoa v Fiorentina (5pm)

Lazio v Spezia (5pm)

Napoli v Crotone (5pm)

Sassuolo v Roma (5pm)

Torino v Juventus (8pm)

Bologna v Inter Milan (10.45pm)

The Cairo Statement

 1: Commit to countering all types of terrorism and extremism in all their manifestations

2: Denounce violence and the rhetoric of hatred

3: Adhere to the full compliance with the Riyadh accord of 2014 and the subsequent meeting and executive procedures approved in 2014 by the GCC  

4: Comply with all recommendations of the Summit between the US and Muslim countries held in May 2017 in Saudi Arabia.

5: Refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of countries and of supporting rogue entities.

6: Carry out the responsibility of all the countries with the international community to counter all manifestations of extremism and terrorism that threaten international peace and security

MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League, last 16, first leg

Liverpool v Bayern Munich, midnight (Wednesday), BeIN Sports

WE%20NO%20LONGER%20PREFER%20MOUNTAINS
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Inas%20Halabi%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENijmeh%20Hamdan%2C%20Kamal%20Kayouf%2C%20Sheikh%20Najib%20Alou%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Global state-owned investor ranking by size

1.

United States

2.

China

3.

UAE

4.

Japan

5

Norway

6.

Canada

7.

Singapore

8.

Australia

9.

Saudi Arabia

10.

South Korea

The specs
  • Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
  • Power: 640hp
  • Torque: 760nm
  • On sale: 2026
  • Price: Not announced yet
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
  • Priority access to new homes from participating developers
  • Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
  • Flexible payment plans from developers
  • Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
  • DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010

Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm

Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year

Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”

Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners

TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013 

Business Insights
  • Canada and Mexico are significant energy suppliers to the US, providing the majority of oil and natural gas imports
  • The introduction of tariffs could hinder the US's clean energy initiatives by raising input costs for materials like nickel
  • US domestic suppliers might benefit from higher prices, but overall oil consumption is expected to decrease due to elevated costs
Champion%20v%20Champion%20(PFL%20v%20Bellator)
%3Cp%3EHeavyweight%3A%20Renan%20Ferreira%20v%20Ryan%20Bader%20%3Cbr%3EMiddleweight%3A%20Impa%20Kasanganay%20v%20Johnny%20Eblen%3Cbr%3EFeatherweight%3A%20Jesus%20Pinedo%20v%20Patricio%20Pitbull%3Cbr%3ECatchweight%3A%20Ray%20Cooper%20III%20v%20Jason%20Jackson%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EShowcase%20Bouts%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3EHeavyweight%3A%20Bruno%20Cappelozza%20(former%20PFL%20World%20champ)%20v%20Vadim%20Nemkov%20(former%20Bellator%20champ)%3Cbr%3ELight%20Heavyweight%3A%20Thiago%20Santos%20(PFL%20title%20contender)%20v%20Yoel%20Romero%20(Bellator%20title%20contender)%3Cbr%3ELightweight%3A%20Clay%20Collard%20(PFL%20title%20contender)%20v%20AJ%20McKee%20(former%20Bellator%20champ)%3Cbr%3EFeatherweight%3A%20Gabriel%20Braga%20(PFL%20title%20contender)%20v%20Aaron%20Pico%20(Bellator%20title%20contender)%3Cbr%3ELightweight%3A%20Biaggio%20Ali%20Walsh%20(pro%20debut)%20v%20Emmanuel%20Palacios%20(pro%20debut)%3Cbr%3EWomen%E2%80%99s%20Lightweight%3A%20Claressa%20Shields%20v%20Kelsey%20DeSantis%3Cbr%3EFeatherweight%3A%20Abdullah%20Al%20Qahtani%20v%20Edukondal%20Rao%3Cbr%3EAmateur%20Flyweight%3A%20Malik%20Basahel%20v%20Vinicius%20Pereira%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
FA Cup fifth round draw

Sheffield Wednesday v Manchester City
Reading/Cardiff City v Sheffield United
Chelsea v Shrewsbury Town/Liverpool
West Bromwich Albion v Newcastle United/Oxford United
Leicester City v Coventry City/Birmingham City
Northampton Town/Derby County v Manchester United
Southampton/Tottenham Hotspur v Norwich City
Portsmouth v Arsenal 

COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Brief scores:

Toss: India, opted to field

Australia 158-4 (17 ov)

Maxwell 46, Lynn 37; Kuldeep 2-24

India 169-7 (17 ov)

Dhawan 76, Karthik 30; Zampa 2-22

Result: Australia won by 4 runs by D/L method

Key recommendations
  • Fewer criminals put behind bars and more to serve sentences in the community, with short sentences scrapped and many inmates released earlier.
  • Greater use of curfews and exclusion zones to deliver tougher supervision than ever on criminals.
  • Explore wider powers for judges to punish offenders by blocking them from attending football matches, banning them from driving or travelling abroad through an expansion of ‘ancillary orders’.
  • More Intensive Supervision Courts to tackle the root causes of crime such as alcohol and drug abuse – forcing repeat offenders to take part in tough treatment programmes or face prison.
LEAGUE CUP QUARTER-FINAL DRAW

Stoke City v Tottenham

Brentford v Newcastle United

Arsenal v Manchester City

Everton v Manchester United

All ties are to be played the week commencing December 21.

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%3Cp%3EAuthor%3A%20Diaa%20Jubaili%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EPages%3A%20180%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EPublisher%3A%20Deep%20Vellum%20Publishing%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
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Updated: June 04, 2022, 7:57 AM`