High-fashion brands have given the humble sweatshirt a makeover, turning it into one of the season's most-coveted wardrobe stars. For his penultimate collection for the house of Balenciaga, Nicolas Ghesquiere re-worked the sweatshirt into voluminous neoprene variations, featuring eye-catching 80s space motifs that looked like they'd come straight off a George Lucas film poster.
The animal head sweatshirt has also been a strong motif for several labels such as Givenchy, whose snarling rottweiler and panther head prints have made them an identifiable brand name among a new demographic of fashion-savvy customers.
Kenzo's creative directors Humberto Leon and Carol Lim have used the iconic tiger head as a way of returning the label to its Asiatic design influences. Close to home, Glassons and Trelise Cooper have both highlighted tiger head prints in their own collections (#1) and (#5).
"People have done almost everything they possibly can on a sweatshirt," explains Harvey Nichols' fashion director, Paula Reed, in a recent interview with The Business of Fashion. "We can't keep them in store, we don't have any on markdown. They sell out. And they have for the last couple of seasons."
Check out our favourite sweatshirts below:
