Main description (English)

Sportswear is one of the most popular items of clothing today. Its main place should be sports grounds, but it has long time since crossed this line. Combining sports and clothing is not easy. From a historical point of view, this union has gone through many stages of development. Modern sportswear has taken permanent positions both on the street and on the catwalks of haute couture . This is because it has made an indelible contribution to the development of fashion. First of all, from a purely utilitarian point of view, it should be noted that it has contributed to the practicality and convenience of using clothing. This is especially true in our modern society, for which the concept of comfort is leading in the choice of clothes. On the other hand, sportswear has played a decisive role in the changing attitude towards modesty over the years. It defines the emphasis and exposure of the human body through clothing as something normal, completely excluding the feeling of eroticism. Thanks to sportswear, fashion crosses social barriers and is established in all social categories, making it more democratic and versatile. From sportswear in the XIX-th century, which was mainly a privilege for the rich people, who socialized in private clubs and followed trends, reading Vogue, it became available to the broad public. At its dawn, many former athletes stood at the head of fashion brands that are popular to this day. Such are Emilio Pucci, René Lacoste and Ottavio Missoni, who, thanks to their sports careers, turned to sportswear. Other famous couturiers such as Gabrielle Chanel, Jeanne Lanvin, Jean Patou, Elsa Schiaparelli give impetus to this style in their collections. Andre Courrèges, Issey Miyake, Azzedine Alaïa, Thierry Mugler, Sonia Rykiel and Kenzo Takada are the modern great designers who designed clothes for sports or brought sportswear to the podium of haute couture. In the modern Bulgarian fashion industry we have an example of an athlete developing a brand in the field of sportswear and this is the world famous football player Hristo Stoichkov. Bibliography: [1] Alexandrova, М. Neoconceptualism i methavselena v syvremennata moda, 2024, ISBN 978-954-00-03795 [2] O’Hara D.: Enciclopedia na modata. Sofia, 1995. [3] Hristova, T. Oblekloto – izbor I obraz na kulturna identichnost - V: Sociologija I ikonomika, 1, 2013, 8490. ISSN 1314-3603