As sport stars become celebrities, sport fashion is scoring points, reports JENNIFER MELOCCO
When Maria Sharapova won her first Wimbledon title this year, she wasn’t short of anything to wear to the post-match ball. One of the most exclusive fashion houses in the world rushed to help out the Siberian stunner.
Decked out in head-to-toe Louis Vuitton, the 182cm blonde sauntered down the red carpet in platform heels wearing a glittering gold dress and carrying the "it" bag of the season, the Theda. It was just the latest example of the fashion and sport worlds coming together.
Sports stars of the past shone mainly on the field, and the last place you expected them to strut their stuff was at a fashion show or on the red carpet.
 ,christian boots;Not any more.
Today sports stars are some of our biggest fashion figures.
And in the past, when the average punter played sport, it was usually in any old T-shirt and shorts. Now we look more like world champions in our up-to-the-minute sports gear.
Tennis star Venus Williams says she doesn’t make a move without knowing what she is going to wear.
"I plan everything around my outfits," the women’s world No.2 says.
Her sister Serena has her own fashion line, Aneres, and plans to go right to the top of the fashion industry.
"My goal in a couple of years is to try to build a successful fashion house like Louboutin or Versace. I want that more than anything," Serena said recently.
And these days the tennis sisters are just as likely to be captured on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival or a film premiere in Los Angeles in their latest designs as they are on the tennis court.
David Beckham is often touted as sparking the rise of a whole fashion movement for men: that of the metrosexual. His wife Victoria is seen as being behind a fashion career that has seen him go through more changes to his looks and clothes than she has. The result? Men embracing new fashion trends and realising that dressing well and looking good doesn’t make you gay.
On the home front, swimmer Ian Thorpe has sat front-row as a guest at Milanese fashion star Christian Louboutin’s shows, designed jewellery for pearl company Autore and even bought out his own underwear line, IT.
 ,christian louboutin sandals;His attention to style, including his latest move of wrapping dark designer glasses around his face when he left the country in his official Olympic uniform last week, puts him on the radar of fashion influence.
David Jones men’s fashion boss David Bush says Thorpe is an influential style figure.
"[Australian] men have figured out that it pays dividends to look good. They’ve seen so many examples of fashionable men doing well, such as Ian Thorpe," he says.
Australian sportswomen have also taken to the fashion game.
Olympic gold medal runner Cathy Freeman swapped the track for the catwalk when she modelled for designer Charlie Brown at her fashion show and in a glossy advertising campaign earlier this year.
Brown says she chose Freeman because in Australia there is simply no bigger star than a sports star.
"We are a sporting country and sportspeople are our biggest celebrities," says Brown.
At the same time that our sports stars have been leaping into the fashion world, traditional sports clothes have taken on fashion status.
When Madonna is in dress-down mode it is often in an Adidas tracksuit. Sports shoes have become a collectible and cult item, with "sneaker freakers" buying limited-edition sneakers worth hundreds of dollars every couple of weeks.
Hype DC, a chain of fashion shoe stores throughout Sydney, has been developed to sell sports shoes that will only ever get a workout as a cool clothing item.
Hype DC’s Danny Gilbert, who admits to having 250 pair of sneakers in his wardrobe, says there is a hunger for the latest-release sneakers.
Warwick Mitchell, Puma’s, managing director in Australia, says the vast majority of sports shoes never hit the track.
He says the sport fashion phenomenon began in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
"Sport was at its pinnacle and the athletic running shoe became the shoe of choice for many people," he says. "And those numbers haven’t changed since then." He says it has been a gradual process for traditional sports labels such as Nike to be seen as fashion brands and not purely sport labels. "It’s come as sports companies have made an investment over the decades, aligning themselves with top sportsmen," he says.
The appeal to wear them is simple. "They [sports stars] are the heroes and people really aspire to be like them." Having a bit of fashion cred also attracts companies such as Puma to align themselves with a player or team.
Mitchell says Puma targeted the Italian soccer team to sponsor not just because of its on-field performance. "They’re known as a mix of fashion, sport and lifestyle," he says.
Outfitting us mere mortals is also lucrative. The sports shoes and clothing market in Australia is worth $1.5billion a year. Nike leads with 25per cent of the market, followed by Adidas and Puma. Nike brand manager Bridget McLean says the demand for fashion pieces from sports companies has grown significantly in the past decade.
The hottest look at the moment comes from ranges for sports such as yoga and pilates, with hoodies and wrap tops on the street and in the gym.
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