lifestyle

Want to look cool this season? Slip on the "fashion tracksuit". Yeah, you heard right.

Tracksuits are bad for morale.

It was a lesson first instilled in me by my fashionista mother, and later reinforced by long periods working from home as a writer. Tracksuits slow you down. Tracksuits render you horizontal.

Tracksuits encourage little more than collapsing onto the couch, spooning tinned spaghetti into jaffles, and falling into a catatonic state in front of Netflix. Right?

Wrong.

‘Wrong’ – a word, incidentally, also used to describe the new look to stumble blindly off the catwalk and into our wardrobes: fashion tracksuits.


Fashion Tracksuits.

After taking a moment to absorb that phrase, riddle me this: how does one take the humble tracksuit and transform it from housebound slob, to high-end style?

Stilettos and sequins, apparently.

From Rihanna to Olivia Palermo, Kendall Jenner to Mary Kate and/or Ashley Olsen, the soft-form suit (feel free to use that term) is experiencing something of a high-fash renaissance.

What She Wore! (Post continues after video) 


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For many of us, the last time we remember a tracksuit appearing anywhere apart from our bedroom floor would have been the Juicy Couture mania of the early 2000’s.

Paired with an extra-large Starbucks, shiny Pierre Fontaine flip-flops and a tiny buckled handbag that sat in your armpit; you would have been peak stylin’ in your two-tone rimless sunglasses…idolising Paris Hilton… Britney before the umbrella incident… pastel blue peddle-pushers… glittery hair mascara…

*Snaps fingers*

And you’re back in the room.

Step out of that crushed velour memory, friends, because the new glamour tracksuit (glamsuit? trackour?) is escaping its hot pink Hummer roots.

The fashion tracksuit is SHARP.

Imagine a drawstring hoodie, paired with the crisp lines of a suit jacket, a floaty skirt, and killer heels. If, like me, you found that virtually impossible, take a look below:

Stacey Duguid.
Stacey Duguid rockin’ the tracksuit top. (Image via: The Pool)
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There you go – not so bad, huh?

That’s fashion writer Stacey Duguid from online publication ‘The Pool’, who asked her audience, ‘Is A Tracksuit Top Too Try-Hard?’

Her answer? Not for daywear, yes for nightwear.

Looking at her look above, we’re totally picking up what she’s putting down… buuut it still feels a little, like, walk of shame from that guy’s house when you had to borrow his jumper to catch the bus because your slinky top from the night before was not at all appropriate for 9.30am on a Sunday morning.

Just me?

In the opposite corner, however, is heavyweight Rihanna who is making a fairly persuasive argument for the black-tie tracksuit. Yes, that’s exactly what I meant. How else would you describe a fur-lined, satin, fully-embroidered two piece?

 


Rihanna out and about in New York. More pictures in our gallery!

A photo posted by Rihanna-Diva.com (@rihannadiva) on Mar 28, 2016 at 9:53pm PDT

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It has a zip. It has a rouched waistline. Heck, it’s even got an old-school stripe down the side (snap side trackie dacks, anyone?) – but Rihanna’s heavenly green satin creation is more ‘catwalk’ that ‘Coles frozen food aisle’ if you ask us.

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Fashion Queen & Inventor Of The Wedding Cardigan, her royal highness Olivia Palermo, gives the glamour trackie top a major style heave-ho with her leather and red-stiletto combo. Oh, we get it now!

Glamour tracksuit = Sports Luxe, right? Fashion. Leather. Big sunglasses.

Yeah?

 

Closer to home, Sydney designer/ Cool Person/ Trendy Head of Hair, Pip Edwards, has just launched her own label –  P.E. Nation; which features a veritable smorgasbord of glamour tracksuits.

There’s drawstrings upon zips upon grey marle of cool trackie designs, and we’re almost positive we could chuck any of those items on with some skinny jeans and sky-high heels and not look like Vicky Pollard.

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Thanks, Pip.

 


| Street Style: The Red Rocket @veronikaheilbrunner | #penation #veronikaheilbrunner #streetsport #fashion

A photo posted by P.E NATION (@p.e.nation) on Mar 8, 2016 at 12:06am PST

  But our favourite glamour trackie representative we’ve stumbled on so far MUST be Advanced Style alumni and all-round legend Sarah-Jane Adams (aka. @Saramaijewels), who rocks out an Adidas Originals trackie top like no other. This woman can do no wrong.   

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For those still being a Doubting Thomas, take those rolling eyes right here to Vogue.com, where Julia Hobbs has slaved over an extensive list of high-end brands reinventing the tracksuit.

“The tracksuit has now been overhauled,” notes Hobbs, “by catwalk powerhouses Chloe, Gucci and Bottega Veneta and made very chic.”

VERY. CHIC.

 


Roos opens the #SS16 Chloé show – Love, Chiara x #InvitedByChloe #PFW @ChiaraFerragni

A photo posted by Chloé (@chloe) on Oct 1, 2015 at 1:32am PDT

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Slobs rejoice, for the Soft Suit is back. Where from, exactly, we’re not sure – but it’s back.

With winter well on its way, get ready to rock the Michelin-man look in the cooler months.

Prepare to layer up your usual blazers, skirts, and skinny jeans with a sports-luxe vibe that may or may not make you look like you had to borrow from the office’s lost property bin because an unexpected cold snap moved through late afternoon.

Fashion, whatta game.