Looks Fashion News

“Our challenge was to take athleisure then inject our sensuality and fierceness into it,” said Charlotte Knowles of the new Nike collaboration revealed at tonight’s KNWLS show. But were there yoga pants? “No!” she and Alexandre Arsenault replied in unison.

The designers’ Milan debut was intriguing not only for those eager to see the fruits of their nearly three-year collection development with the Swoosh, but for those further tantalized by the presence of Diesel founder and OTB president Renzo Rosso. Suffice it to say that KNWLS remains an authentically indie London start up, while being open to side hustles with aligned spirits from every fashion locale. 

The spirit of the intertwined KNWLS x Nike and KNWLS mainline collections that Rosso and the rest of us saw was defined by Arsenault as “running to the club.” The set-up was what he called “a weird sci-fi situation that feels a bit Zoolander” and saw the models stride at speed through a semi-transparent walkway before emerging into full view as VTSS DJ’d on a platform above. 

The Nike stuff was radical. The key sneaker came mostly in black or off-white colorways plus one pink upper, red-sole version made to match a subtly ruffled, lace-cuffed, puff-sleeve dress in a gently contrasting pink jacquard. The shoe’s pointed, slightly raised toe in molded TPU was based on that of an archive KNWLS boot named the Raptor and generated a refreshingly bracing unfamiliarity: It looked like a futuristic poulaine. 

There was also a Made in Italy handbag with waffle-sole base, leather strap and paneled nylon body. Although we’ve seen Nike handbags in the past from designers including Jacquemus and Riccardo Tisci, this still seemed almost transgressively beyond the sportswear brand’s usual category boundaries and all the more interesting for it. A vaguely paramilitary corset made in proprietary Flyknit was another jaw-dropping novelty for connoisseurs of the Beaverton brand. 

None of this looked incongruously imposed against the all-KNWLS collection around it. Leather bonded with neoprene was cut into precisely darted oversized jackets whose bulky, round-shouldered silhouette emanated an armor-like toughness and was lent a vaguely fencing flavor by the ruff-style collar detailing. Roughly textured knit check jackets and flute-hemmed skirts above layered tops were an alternative reality riff on Chanel. 

Ergonomic piping meets kinesiology tape traced the physical architecture on bodycon layers in sludgily-toned, tightly woven cotton and tubular-knit lycra that sometimes resembled washed denim. 

While it all appeared highly designed to serve some non-specified physical function, the aesthetic’s real purpose was to accentuate a mentality of warrior-confidence—that fierce sensuality flagged by Knowles from the start.