Street-wise sporting style

Press, 5 December 1989, Page 21

Street-wise sporting style

By

CHRIS TOPP

SUMMER is the ideal time to wear clothes for purposes they weren’t really designed for. Many casual and sports-oriented summer clothes are such that they can be worn for a variety of uses. Several of these lines are also unisex. One obvious example is the cycle short, made from lycra. These are no longer worn only by the professional cyclist. Petra Broers, a part-owner of Ultrasport, says the shop sells lots of cycle shorts for street wear and aerobics classes. Both unpadded and semi-padded shorts are popular. Cycle shorts can also be seen on the dance floors of Christchurch’s nightclubs.

Women often wear them under short, frilled skirts which are matched with tight singlets. Chunky brogues normally finish off the outfit. Men have also adopted cycle shorts for nightclub wear, but mainly in Auckland. However, they can occasionally be spotted on nightclubbing males in Christchurch. The tracksuit is another outfit in this mode. Designer tracksuits are

now available in Christchurch. Such clothes represent a more tailored trend at the casual end of the market. Nicky Lay, the manageress of Metropole, says the tracksuits (which are invariably 100 per cent cotton) aren’t meant to be worn for exercise or sport.

Instead, they’ve definitely been designed for leisurewear. Both short and long pants are available. So now the fashionable person can relax at home in their designer tracksuit. They’re also ideal for wearing to the shops on a Saturday or to a barbecue.

Nicky Lay says the tracksuits are expensive but they’re selling well. Tracksuits made from nylon are also available and proving quite popular. These tracksuits provide some protection from summer showers while jogging but they’re mainly being worn to and from the gymnasium. The nylon tracksuits are available in fluorescents. This typifies the colour trends in casual clothes this summer — they are very bright with two or more fluorescents often being used on the same garment. There are plenty of casual and sports clothes available this summer. Many are unisex and many are being worn for purposes somewhat removed from what they were originally designed for.