Bold and brassy

With the Beijing Olympics just months away, sports-inspired designs and concepts have become the key driving forces for China's fashion industry, according to WGSN, the world's leading online research, trends analysis and news service for the fashion and style industries. In particular, the trend to combine sports and fashion, which is referred to as activewear, is racing to the everyday-wear finish line at five levels, namely Repose, Animated, Zenith, Delectable and Acute.

In addition, it's getting a dash of color for the Spring/Summer 2009 season. The color palette is moving from Spring/Summer 08's cool palette with strong blue undertones to one built around soft brights and warm pure neutrals. Key shades for the season are delicious creamy yellows, fresh apricot and bright coral.

WGSN unveiled these and other key trends at a seminar it hosted on February 24 during ISPO China 2008 at the China International Exhibition Centre (CIEC) in Beijing. ISPO is an international tradeshow for sports fashion and lifestyle brands in Asia.

According to WGSN research, sports fashion is about everyday wear, not catwalk ideals.

For men, highlights of Spring/Summer 2009 include the fitted tank, sleeveless egg tee, long polo, tech-inspired hoody and trousers, asymmetric jacket and dropped shorts.

For women, consumers can look forward to the corset-inspired gilet, long hoody, beach cover-up, cropped jacket, T-shirt dress, woven hot shorts, balloon shorts, cropped leggings and two-faced slouch jogging pants.

(China Daily 03/01/2008 page6)