Elegant ease takes hold as casualization evolves the modern luxury wardrobe.
The fashion industry’s growing emphasis on sports culture has also led to a proliferation of performance textiles in everyday wear.
A new definition of glamour comes with a high degree of comfort. The casualization of how we dress has made its way into nearly everyone’s wardrobes. And luxury brands are now at the forefront of this trend.
Casualization started long before the pandemic, but the trend was exacerbated by it—months of dressing in loungewear and athleisure increased our craving for comfort. Then came the hybridization of working from home and the office, and dressing down didn’t seem as inappropriate.
Miu Miu x New Balance sneakers (Photo courtesy of brands)
For luxury brands, the demand for elevated casual looks was a signal to loosen the tailoring and embrace the informal, which they did wholeheartedly. For couture 2023, Valentino reimagined everyday glamour with gold lamé-embroidered denim. In an extreme version of casualization, Balenciaga’s Destroyed collection for spring 2022 featured tattered, dirtied, and distressed sneakers, sweaters, and jeans.
adidas x Gucci (shoes, accessories, and ready-to-wear) (Photos by Carlijn Jacobs/Courtesy of brands)
One of the easiest and most popular ways heritage brands capitalize on the trend is through collaborations with streetwear and athleisure brands. “It’s absolutely the most beneficial of relationships,” says Jessica Richards, trend forecaster and JMR trend + creative founder. “This creates an organic reach for luxury brands to new customers who know of the brand but may not have the budget or the desire to shop their collections without the casual brand collaborator. The latter, in turn, gain an opportunity to deviate from their known aesthetics (to a degree) and get a little more playful,” she adds.
Left: Tiffany & Co. x Nike Whistle Pendant Necklace (Photo courtesy of brands) Top Right: NIKE Air Force 1 x Tiffany & Co. sneakers (Photo courtesy of brands) Bottom Right: Nike x Tiffany & Co. sterling silver shoe brush (Photo courtesy of brands)
The fashion industry’s growing emphasis on sports culture has also led to a proliferation of performance textiles in everyday wear. Examples include the Adidas x Gucci collaboration in 2022, which saw the two brands crossbreed each other’s iconic symbols—Gucci’s horsebit and Adidas’ trefoil—into stylish and wearable cotton dresses, sneaker wedges, and tracksuits. Miu Miu, meanwhile, teamed up with New Balance to recreate its 530 running shoe with sailing cord shoelaces.
Beyond comfort, these collaborations offer consumers “a very wearable way to participate in luxury fashion,” Richards states. For example, Tiffany & Co., the hallowed jewelry brand, worked with Nike to create sneakers with the latter’s swoosh logo in Tiffany Blue and shoe brushes and tongues in sterling silver. Likewise, Barbie-pink ski jackets and floral motifs on tights and mittens from BOGNER’s collaboration with LoveShackFancy is a way to capture the brand’s signature romantic whimsy in a practical outfit for the slopes.
Left: Tiffany & Co. x Nike Whistle Pendant Necklace (Photo courtesy of brands) Top Right: NIKE Air Force 1 x Tiffany & Co. sneakers (Photo courtesy of brands) Bottom Right: Nike x Tiffany & Co. sterling silver shoe brush (Photo courtesy of brands)
Another prolific collaborator is RIMOWA, whose high-end luggage doubles as a calling card for a frequent flier lifestyle that demands a more comfort-based and casual approach. Over the last few years, it has collaborated with Supreme, Off-White, and Anti Social Social Club. Its latest partnership with Palace Skateboards features the Original Cabin suitcase with airbrushed graphics of desert landscapes. The more democratized travel becomes, the more different types of travelers will want to express their personality through a more individualized approach to luggage.
Top Left: RIMOWA x Adidas backpack; Bottom Left: RIMOWA x Tiffany & Co. case; Right: RIMOWA x Palace Original Cabin luggage (All photos courtesy of brands)
“It’s critically important to consider that this fashion zeitgeist is not just the collective sinking into what is easy or lazy,” Richards says. Collaborations between luxury houses and high street brands create an elevated casual dressing middle ground “that feels wearable yet refined, and offers a more appropriate aesthetic that can live across lifestyles without disparaging formal environments nor feeling overdone in casual ones.”
In other words, casualization means that luxury, comfort, and style can go hand in hand.
