Missoni has partnered with Adidas Running on a limited-edition collection of performance shoes and sports apparel, released this week at Missoni.com and Missoni boutiques, and at Adidas.com. The Italian family company is famous for its kaleidoscopic knitwear and bohemian zest for the good life (you won’t have a better meal in Milan than at Angela Missoni’s place), but this is far from its first entry into the world of sports. Ottavio “Tai” Missoni, the family patriarch and house founder with wife, Rosita, participated in the 1948 Olympic Games. Italy’s team wore tracksuits of his design; Missoni’s innovation was zips at the bottom of the legs, so a runner (or hurdler, in Tai’s case) could remove his pants without taking off his spiked cleats.
“My father was very fast, but he was very lazy in many other respects,” laughs Angela, Tai’s daughter and the company’s current creative director. “Everything was about comfort and being easy for him, and that’s something that’s always been integral to the Missoni brand. It explains the fact that despite being a 65-year-old house, despite being the founder of Milano Fashion Week, despite being the first to do prêt-à-porter in Italy, we are still a small, artisanal company.” A small, artisanal company that has just partnered with the second-largest sportswear-maker in the world.
The resulting collection will look familiar to fans of Missoni, incorporating as it does the label’s space-dye technique in both multicolored and black and white variations. There are Ultraboost sneakers, and on the apparel front, a short-sleeved shirt, jacket, and shorts, all using Adidas’s proprietary Primeknit technology, which makes them both breathable and lightweight. “I’m expecting a full summer with my Ultraboosts,” says Angela. She’s not the only one. “Everybody’s calling,” she says of the Missoni clan. “Can I have mine? Where are mine?” Tai would be proud.
Originally published on Vogue
Editor
Nicole Phelps
