Once reserved for the gym and lazy weekends, the humble sweatshirt has emerged as a high fashion hero piece for both men and women, regularly appearing on top tier runways and consistently selling out at luxury retailers.
But these aren’t your classic heather grey numbers. These are a new breed of highly fashionable “statement sweatshirts” that are embroidered (Carven), satin-backed (Jason Wu), python-patterned (Reed Krakoff), bamboo-printed (Balmain) and paillette-strewn (Lanvin). Not to mention Kenzo’s embroidered Eiffel Tower, tiger head and Hokusai-inspired cresting wave sweatshirts.
The rise of the statement sweatshirt has rendered fashion icons out of Nicolas Ghesquière’s “Sci-Fi” jumpers for Balenciaga and Riccardo Tisci’s panther and Rottweiler jumpers at Givenchy, which cost north of $1000.
