Tailoring meets spotswear in the new collaboration between Martine Rose and Nike

For the first time, Nike is experimenting with traditional tailoring, and what better partner to do so than the one that has built its success on the fusion of sportswear and tailoring? The collaboration between the sportswear giant and Martine Rose brings together stylistic codes designed for very different settings - the football pitch and formal occasions - in a collection of bespoke garments that redefines the term "sportswear". The garments will be available later this month, to coincide with the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup. The collection is entirely tailored to British football culture and aims to «bridge the gender gap in tailoring for women's sport». The news of the collaboration comes at the culmination of a very hectic time in Rose's business, who recently unveiled her own collaborative collection with Clarks as a guest creative director during her London show set in a community center soon after gaining high visibility with the outfit she created for Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar's The Hillbillies video.

The collection includes a jacket, trousers, trench coat, and shirt designed for female players but based on British tailoring codes, as well as accessories such as socks, gloves, and sunglasses, and a new decline of the viral Nike x Martine Rose Shox Mule MR 4 shoe in a blue and purple color scheme inspired by 1990s goalkeeper jerseys. «This is the first time Nike has done tailoring, and that in itself is very exciting and a privilege,» Rose told WWD, describing the collection as «more than tailoring. It's about the women who wear it, about strength, resilience, beauty, and power. I wanted women to feel as powerful as men often do». According to Vogue Business, footballer Megan Rapinoe, who hopes to recover from her injury in time to play for the US team, agrees: «I love the fusion of sport, fashion, and culture and as an athlete, I have always wanted what we wear to represent more» she said.

Football culture and sportswear have always been an essential part of Rose's collections, as have the subcultures and minorities that are often ignored by the mainstream of the fashion world. While many sports brands, from Adidas to Lululemon, are investing in performance apparel for women, the collaboration with Nike is the first to meaningfully support female athletes in their formal moments off the field, and it's not the first time Nike has approached the designer at a tournament. In 2021, during the men's Euro 2020, Rose reinvented the England football team jersey in a project called The Lost Lionesses. Last summer, during the European Women's Championship, Nike and Rose launched the Nike Shox MR4 shoe. They supported the 'unsung heroes' of British football with posters highlighting talents such as Kat Craig, a human rights lawyer who campaigns for victims of sexual abuse in football, and Hope Powell, the first black British female manager in football.

The collection will be available exclusively on Martine-Rose.com from 25 July, five days after the opening day of the World Cup in Australia, and on Nike.com, the Snkrs app, and in selected Nike shops from 27 July.