Up Your Game

Nothing marks the start of English summer quite like Wimbledon. The legendary Grand Slam tennis tournament kicks off in London this week and, if your interest stretches beyond simply eating strawberries while watching the best of the best fight it out for the trophy, then you’ll want to take note of what the players are wearing as much as their game. That’s because the latest collection from adidas By Stella McCartney is set to be unveiled throughout the fortnight, worn on court by elite athletes including Angelique Kerber and Caroline Wozniacki.

It’s more than a decade now since adidas first partnered with the London designer and set about revolutionising workout wardrobes for women everywhere, cementing their collaboration as the go-to for style-conscious fitness enthusiasts. What really makes the partnership work is that they’re the perfect team: Stella McCartney’s much-loved aesthetic – all low-key elegance and sophisticated, fuss-free style – is just the thing to add a fashion-forward spin to the high-performance, cutting-edge expertise of adidas and its team. Which means that together they conjure pieces that have all the carefully thought out, innovative details that you could need to help you play to the best of your ability while making you look good in the process.

They look good too, of course. This being tennis, the collection is pristine, packed out with white, but look closely, and you’ll see flashes of color and subtle changes in texture that keep things interesting: trims and zips in high-impact red, and mesh that riffs on the pattern of camouflage. So, you’d better start practising to make sure your game is as professional and on point as the kit you’re wearing.

The new collection is no exception. From dresses to T-shirts, the pieces are whipped up using seamless knits and lightweight fabrics and are peppered with precisely placed laser-cut holes and perforations to allow for effortless movement and maximum breathability (don’t forget, they’re being worn by tennis players at the top of their game, so the practical aspects are serious business). And, because, Stella McCartney is a game-changer when it comes to making fashion as sustainable as possible, the way that the pieces have been made is just as considered as their aesthetic, from using clever dying techniques that waste as little water as possible, to choosing pioneering recycled fabrics made from used garments and upcycled plastic waste cleared from beaches.