Pearls on soccer socks, English lace on a sports bag and little clovers hidden among embroidery. Simone Rocha and Adidas Originals have globally launched the first full collection of their collaboration, a project that seeks to blur the boundaries between fashion and traditional sportswear codes.

The collection had debuted on the catwalk at Alexandra Palace during London Fashion Week in February and now reaches the market as the first chapter of a relationship that both parties have planned for the long term.

The apparent distance between the universes of both brands is precisely one of the starting points of the project. Rocha has usually defined her work through a femininity built with pearls, ruffles, lace, transparencies and large-volume silhouettes. Adidas, for its part, brings a sports language to the collaboration that, as the designer explained to Voguehas been part of her own way of dressing since she was a teenager.

Rocha remembers growing up in Ireland wearing Adidas clothing under her school skirt and, during her college years, combining vintage petticoats and tutus with three-stripe soccer shorts. “I always appreciated how it provided a basis for the femininity that emerged very naturally in my way of dressing”he explained.
That contrast runs through the collection. Recognizable Adidas garments such as the Firebird and Beckenbauer tracksuits have been translated into the language of Simone Rocha, as have the Superstar sneakers.

Sports codes coexist with some of the designer’s characteristic resources. The soccer socks incorporate pearl-like details; the classic Airline bag appears reinterpreted with broderie anglaise; and the lace embroidery hides small Adidas Trefoils.

“Adidas is simply a huge universe”Rocha explained to Vogue. “So I ask myself: ‘What is our planet?’

The collaboration thus uses the archive and recognizable elements of Adidas as raw material to build its own space, instead of limiting itself to placing the visual codes of one brand on the products of the other. The tension between both languages ​​is part of the proposal: Rocha’s femininity finds a counterpoint in sports references and these, in turn, acquire a different reading when introduced into her imagination.

The relationship also has a biographical dimension. Sport does not appear only as an aesthetic reference incorporated for the collaboration, but as an element that already coexisted with feminine and vintage clothing in Rocha’s way of dressing during his youth.

To build the visual universe of this first installment, Rocha has turned to the American photographer Justine Kurland, whose work and, particularly, her series “Girl Pictures” have been a reference for the designer. Thus, Kurland has photographed eleven young women, selected by combining faces that are already part of Simone Rocha’s universe with profiles from street casting. The images place the group in a green and apparently idyllic landscape, although crossed by a strange component. “His work has always influenced me greatly”Rocha noted about Kurland. “We wanted to convey that feeling of youth and realism, as if they were living in their own world.”

The campaign thus avoids some of the polished optimism traditionally associated with sports advertising. Rocha highlights precisely the quality “displaced” and slightly dystopian nature of Kurland’s photography, which introduces a certain discomfort within the apparent delicacy of the images.

Youth, Irish folklore, sport and femininity are thus integrated into the same imaginary. Studio RM has been in charge of the post-production of the photographs and the audiovisual campaign piece, with Jack McGinity in charge of grading to maintain the smooth and dreamlike finish of the whole.

This first collection will not be an isolated collaboration. Adidas Originals and Simone Rocha have confirmed that the project will continue, and the designer has already indicated her interest in exploring other sporting and technical territories present in the three stripes archive.