Call it the Happy Gilmore 2 effect, or literally anything else (please), but at New York Fashion Week, there’s been a particular kind of aesthetic lunging, jogging, ducking and weaving its way toward us.
Loose, thigh-grazing shorts in blazing red, worn with collared shirts and ballet flats. Zip-up activewear tops, last seen on joggers in Central Park circa 2002, were featured in the front row. Basketball tanks in high-impact orange and blue, paired with slouchy, hipbone-grazing jeans and cowboy boots. It’s an outfit that suggests you’re going somewhere fast, just not necessarily the gym.
This trend isn’t limited to fashion’s elite. On TikTok, the hashtag “2004 yoga mum” brings up pictures of Jessica Alba and Madonna in velour. A boutique store called “Old Jewish Men” is selling Happy Gilmore-inspired soccer shorts that (they read: “Spite” instead of “Sprite”), retailers like Free People and With Jéan are releasing vintage-inspired workoutwear, and niche Instagram and TikTok sellers like Rummage Stretch and Curtsy are flogging old school active wear that’s selling out as fast as archival Pucci. These looks generally centre around a single sportswear piece styled with something a little more structured and a splash of whimsy. Sports shorts with a collared shirt and loafers, or a Y2K tennis dress with a lacey bandana and Margiela Tabis (if you’re Zoë Kravitz, consider peep-toe mules and a Saint Laurent hobo bag).
ADIDAS
Firebird Shorts
THE FRANKIE SHOP
White & Red Lui Striped Cotton Shirt
WINDSOR SMITH
Dani Loafer
FREE PEOPLE
Clementine Tree Head Scarf “Apricot”
The trend isn’t brand new. Sportswear with a boyishly-cutesy twist first emerged as a recurring motif in women’s fashion around 2022. The fashion podcast Nymphette Alumni even gave it a name: “blokette”. At the time, it was about polo shirts and a general laddishness. Since then, it’s evolved — absorbing all manner of retro gear, from tearaway trackpants to NBA tanks. In Sydney and Melbourne, basketball shorts and vintage jerseys have long been spotted at gallery openings in Redfern and Collingwood, worn with Salomons, ballet sneakers, or Margiela Tabis. But this year, it reached fever pitch, even finding its way into actual workout spaces. This event sparked panic. Or at least, it did at arbiters of the zeitgeist like the Daily Mail and New York Post (ahem), who insisted Gen Z had declared leggings “cringe”. To avoid ageing yourself by a hundred years, the experts decreed, you needed to wear puffy tracksuit pants or vintage soccer shorts — the bigger, baggier, and lower slung, the better.
It was all very alarming. Especially if, like me, you’ve ever been forced to wear loose shorts to Pilates because you couldn’t find your (apparently shameful) leggings, and only just made it through feet-in-straps without being arrested for indecent exposure.
P.E NATION
Ultra Short
GLASSONS
Super Soft Halter Neck Top
WOODCHUCKSATO
Tabi Slingback Low Block Heels
CHLOÉ
Laiton Earrings
Of course, these so-called style wars are mostly fabricated — content bait designed to pit one generation against another for the benefit of a readership who are our parents’ age. But something has indeed shifted away from polished activewear worn from gym to juicebar and towards something reminiscent of a more carefree time. The once aspirational sets from Lululemon and Alo Yoga, those neutral-toned, perfectly colour-matched, $300 athleisure uniforms have started to feel as soulless as Patrick Bateman’s skincare routine.
Some are over it because of the price tags. Others are frustrated by a drop in quality. And many are just tired of how cookie-cutter it all feels. A matching set broadcasts to everyone a commitment to solo pilates classes, solo hot girl walks, and presumably solo thirst trap sessions just at the time we’re all yearning for more fun and community. Vintage sportswear from the 80s through to the 2000s, from loose shorts to tennis dresses, had a different energy. These practical athletic clothes were less about self-optimisation and more about team sports. The pieces were often gaudy, occasionally unflattering, and always profoundly unserious.
LOVERS AND FRIENDS
Adina Short
VINTAGE SOLE
1995 Friends Central Perk Coffee Tee
KHAITE
Charlotte Leather Ballet Flats
STAUD
Moon Leather-Trimmed Raffia Tote
The uptake on vintage sportswear on social shows just how much we’re yearning for a sartorial alternative to the uniform of po-faced wellness culture.
One of the common complaints of summer style is that it lacks the complexity and versatility of winter dressing that comes with coats, cardigans and jumpers. The vintage activewear aesthetic provides reprieve for those who find the summer formula of floaty dresses or denim shorts uninspiring. Layering and unexpected combinations are precisely what make it work. So if you’re sick of the floaty dress with sandals formula this summer, take your style to the courts.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
