To Dare Is To Dream
Review of Sportmax Spring 2026 Fashion Show
By Angela Baidoo
THE COLLECTION
THE VIBE
Restoration, Fluid Volume, Blurred Botanicals
On ‘shifting ground’ is a fresh way to view the current climate, we need to let go of expectations of stability and embrace fluidity and the way it gives us permission to dream.
Fantasy grounded in reality is the exacting approach that the design community needs to take in these volatile times. Just as creativity may thrive under conditions of immense pressure, pure flights of fancy, likened to those seen on the runways in the 1990s and early 2000s may struggle to be perceived as anything but out of touch by the very customers brands are tryng to reach.
A sense of playfulness has become a necessary escape of late, but these collections also need to have purpose and a practical application.
This is not a call to stop dreaming, but as the show notes suggested we shouldn’t lose our footing while our heads are in the clouds. Understanding this concept and striking the right balance Sportmax today proposed a collection made to facilitate movement, yet also ‘grounded in the realities of urban life’. Made for women in perpetual motion these clothes were also made for walking. In their carefully thought through construction, each layer builds on the last and as today’s notes said ‘Lasting beauty, functional design and sensuality’ come together as voluminous sheer pants, sleeveless trench coat dresses with the practicality of extended pockets, and leather outerwear with adjustable panels and split sleeves. The precision of architecture meets a weightless way of dressing for the future.
The favouring of fluidity was also seen in the botanical flowers, whose textured effect was created using Japanese cosmetics, liquid lipsticks, and nail polish!
THE DIRECTION
THE WRAP UP
A long term design philosophy for Sportmax has been in the constant desire to understand the future, and for the near-future in the form of next spring we have permission to dream with “conservation and restoration ” of the past informing a desire to exist unrestricted, and untethered in the now.
