The
launch of the latest NIKELab line brought us on a mystery tour to the hometown
of the designer Johanna Schneider. It’s
been a year since she first presented samples of the collection and an all
encompassing collaboration even longer in perfecting. As soon as you see Johanna you can understand
why NIKE hit gold in working with this wonder-women who combines both passion
for sport with knowledge in performance-wear.
After an introduction to the background of the partnership, she then
leads us thru an NTC workout that she has specially devised for us to
physically experience the designs. A
combination of Vinyasa yoga postures, flow into high intensity cardio military
style moves. Each transition plotted out
for our bodies to test and highlight the shapes in unison. Our team of taste-makers, influencers and
journalists brought together from across Europe are all put thru our paces and
fitness levels put to the test! It’s
this extreme focus on fitness that Johanna has tailored the modular system of training
pieces for. From a running, ski and surf
background herself she knows the needs of women’s expectations from
sportswear. The individual pieces can be
put together in various formations to fit to each stage of a session: travelling to the gym, whilst in motion and
leaving the work out. Across the
spectrum of styles this offers volume to breath and more structured shapes for
protection. The Pièce de résistance is
the rectangular cape with ties, breakpoints and belt that allow it to act as a
coat, wrap and skirt for each different area of your activity. It’s almost martial arts in style but a
clean graphic formula which folds up neatly into a square of fabric to slot
into your kit. Johanna’s inspiration
was to develop garments which play with the body and come to life when opened
up like a butterfly from a cocoon. The
dri-FIT stretch garments have her hand-painted illustrations in print placement to
interact with the silhouette. The complete colour palette is subtle to compliment
diversity in skin tones. It's all been
devised to integrate with your daily routine with “diversity” as a key theme also
in relation to women sharing a workout.
Johanna has identified that the current trend in fitness is training
becoming a meeting time for girlfriends to socialise. With this in mind it was lovely to travel to
Berlin and meet a whole new network of girls from different cities, jobs and
life experiences. Thanks to NIKE for this
opportunity to have a trip to Berlin to coincide with it’s Fashion Week and be
treated to this privileged insight to the range, direct from the designer.
Read all about the collection here, with a breakdown of each item - available from January 26th.
Photos top to bottom: The NIKEXJFS Kit Bag, The designer in Q&A, athletes in the collection demonstrating its functionality, the cape in its rectangular flat format, the installation at KOW Gallery, my kit before the workout including the long sleeve crop top which I LOVED!
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