Yahoo Finance These Tracksuits Are Made for Styling out Lockdown
- 1/11
These Tracksuits Are Made for Styling out Lockdown
If you spent 2020 getting your head around WFH, make this year all about nailing the dress code. We can’t be the only ones sick of the sight of ubiquitous loungewear in all of its unceremonious glory: saggy jogging bottoms, faded sweatshirts, misshapen T-shirts, the whole mundane works.
That’s not to say that casualwear has to be unstylish. Now, the tracksuit, that’s something we can get behind. Compared with jersey basics, it looks pretty darn pulled-together – by nature of being co-ordinated, that is. Lockdown may have taken from us the daily pleasure of ‘getting dressed’, but not all hope is lost: head-to-toe looks make quite the statement and, as it happens, this one is pretty comfy.
A Brief History of the Tracksuit
With comfort comes a sort of carefree cool. Tracksuits may have started with neat-as-a-pin athletes zipped up in terry-cloth, but they were quickly jazzed up by the OG hip hop crowd, who paid homage to old soul with lashings of gold jewellery, shades and Kangol fedoras. Not long after, they entered flashy-but-give-a-fuck territory with the rise of Terrace Casuals. Which isn’t to say logo-clad football hooligans weren’t precious about their Sergio Tacchini and Fila get-ups, but this new strain of dapper was different. These clothes were spenny and covetable, yes, but ultimately practical; made from stretchy, technical fabrics that looked and felt relaxed, allowing for unrestricted movement (and the occasional brawl, admittedly) in a way that stiff suits never could.
The tough-guy-tracksuit has been perpetuated in popular culture ever since. In the Nineties, even Mafiosas swapped their double-breasted tailoring for trackies: there were shell suits aplenty in The Sopranos, three-stripe Adidas styles in Goodfella’s and even Al Pacino – who stuck strictly to silk suits as The Godfather – rocked one in the 1997 film Donnie Brasco.
How, When and Where To Wear a Tracksuit
At first, it was just rappers like Jay Z and P Diddy who had the chutzpah to walk the red carpet wearing a tracksuit, but now most men have attempted one in places they, well, oughtn’t. Life a little lacklustre at the moment? Try sporting head-to-toe velour on your morning coffee run and witness the curious/impressed glances in your wake.
And you don’t need a celebrity stylist to look like you know what you’re doing. A tracksuit takes all of two seconds to throw on and does all the work for you. Simply pair it with trainers, sliders, loafers (see Lakeith Stanfield and Chance the Rapper) or perhaps a Chelsea boot à la Timmy Chalamet.
Now, for the tricky decision of choosing one. Like most things in life, there are different tracksuit tribes. The unabashed flamboyance of Gucci and Casablanca; the retro cool of Wales Bonner’s Adidas collaboration (good luck getting your hands on that); the slick, technical utility of Prada’s archival nylon looks or institutional heavy-duty sweats which have been going strong since the Fifties (and don’t require a designer budget).
If you’re still deciding which of those you fall into, or fancy trying your hand at all four (and why not? There’s not much else to do), take inspiration from our edit of the 10 best tracksuits for men to shop now and live in the foreseeable
The Best Men's Tracksuits to Buy Now:
* - 2/11
Gucci
Gucci features twice in this edit, simply because Alessandro Michele is the king of tracksuits. And there's something democratic about his approach to design, to the point where Paul Pogba and Harry Styles could, perhaps, be spotted in the same outfit. (Obviously, the former would pair his with logo socks and sliders and the latter will run the with Seventies vibe every time).
Tracksuit jacket, £1,060 and bottom, £690, selfridges.com
. - 3/11
Craig Green
Good news: Craig Green is back on Mr Porter. And with a bang, it seems – he's up to his old trick with plenty of lacing and 'un-done' detailing. The result on this three-piece loungewear is low-key directional; it'll certainly turn a few heads when you're queuing dutifully outside Sainsbury's. Now that's an uplifting thought.
Loopback cotton sweatshirt, £350, and joggers, £365; T-shirt, £160, mrporter.com
. - 4/11
Les Tien
Les Tien was championing tracksuits long before lockdown hit and now the unisex leisurewear brand couldn't be more in-demand. Its relaxed pieces are crafted in LA from heavy-duty jersey or luxe velour, then finished with playfully preppy detailing like the 'Yacht' camp collar.
Velour sweatshirt, £350, and joggers, £245, brownsfashion.com
. - 5/11
Casablanca
Casablanca's vibe was always a little Seventies resortwear meets Eighties sportswear. Or laid-back Miami meets crisp WASPy tennis whites. So, naturally, the brand nails the tracksuit season after season. This baby is made from plush borg, piped in fresh lawn-green and finished with striped ribbing.
Borg tracksuit jacket, £1,215, and bottoms, £361, farfetch.com
. - 6/11
H&M
We recommend bypassing the poly blends on the high street in favour of heavy-duty cotton. H&M's tracksuit is proper stuff, knitted from organic fibres into a weighty 460g jersey, but will cost you less than £50. There's a T-shirt and hoodie to match, so you can get a little wild with the loungewear rotation on weekdays.
Cotton sweatshirt, £24.99, and joggers, £24.99, hm.com
. - 7/11
Paul Smith
Paul Smith first debuted his spaghetti design back in the Eighties after a trip to Japan, where he spotted wax food models (funnily enough, we don't imagine it was spaghetti he saw) in restaurant windows.
It returned for the brand's 50th anniversary in 2020, pulled from the archives and printed onto the black background of this funnel-neck tracksuit. If you're finding lockdown life a little dull, this is one way to spice things up.
Printed tracksuit jacket, £370 and joggers, £330, selfridges.com
. - 8/11
Tom Ford
Trust Tom Ford to make a tracksuit so sleek and slim fitting, we could imagine a pouty Daniel Craig wearing one in the next Bond film. For those who abhor both the Fifties track-and-field sweats and retro shell trackies, this luxe fleece-back cotton number should suffice.
Garment-Dyed Half-Zip Sweatshirt, £690, and tapered joggers, £720, mrporter.com
. - 9/11
Gucci
Just when we thought Alessandro Michele had nowhere to go with his tracksuit incarnations, he takes it to new levels with this nod to Terrace casuals. In fact, this design brings to mind Paul Anderson's legendary Fila Terrinda look in 2009's The Firm remake, thanks to its postbox-red velour, logo webbing and relaxed fit.
Velour track jacket, £1,150, and joggers, £880, selfridges.com
. - 10/11
Reigning Champ X Browns
If you’re one of those, frankly, peculiar men who insists on wearing shorts whatever the weather (team them with flip flops, and we’re certain you live in south-west London), you’re in luck. Browns just teamed up with Reigning Champ to bring us this burgundy tracksuit made from fleece-backed jersey. If it were us, we’d swap these relaxed bottoms for the warmer joggers alternative when you leave the house.
Terry Cotton Hoodie, £155, and shorts, £115, brownsfashion.com
. - 11/11
MKI
Long before the pandemic hit and loungewear became our uniform, MKI was nailing it in the sweatsuit department with its Made in The USA range. (It's the real deal: heavy-duty, fleece-backed jersey, so thick its bulbous dimensions are reigned in only by ribbing.) Sadly, no one can get their hands on the stuff – join the waitlist here – because it sells out within hours of every re-stock, but this cool faux shearling set is coming in a close second on our wish list.
Borg hoodie, £69, and joggers, £65, endclothing.com
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You're not going anywhere, which means it's time to invest in the loungewear that makes lockdown more luxurious
