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The sports tunnel is the new runway show. Athletes and their fans are entering arenas, fields, and stadiums in style—and the looks have never been better. Wimbledon fashion is coming to the fore. Golf is finally getting its high-fashion moment in the sun. And WNBA players have been drip, drip, dripping on game day.
Now, soccer is ready to enter into the sartorial spotlight, too.
The U.S. Women’s National team players are walking into this summer’s highly anticipated Women’s World Cup wearing one-of-a-kind, gender-free tailored pieces from Nike x Martine Rose. “I wanted something that felt directional,” Rose exclusively tells ELLE.com. “I wanted it to have a sleekness, a realness…less of a directional fashion suit, and just a great tailored suit.”
The collection features a suit jacket, trouser, trench, and shirt—plus socks, gloves, and sunglasses. ELLE.com was given an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the making of the pre-game outfit, which is also available later this month on Martine-Rose.com and SNKRS.
The collection is “clean, very simple and strong, and stripped back,” Rose says. “The jacquard is really beautiful. When you see it, it is very subtle. We have taken away almost all details.” The pieces have hidden buttons to create a “simple, clean, strong silhouette,” she adds. “I didn’t feel like it needed any distraction aside from the person in it. There is a singular strength in it.”
Rose says her designs are inspired by the U.S. Women’s team as a whole. But perhaps her biggest muse is three-time Olympian Megan Rapinoe, who publicly announced that this World Cup will be her last. Just as impressive as Rapinoe’s record number of career goals for the U.S. (63) and World Cup wins (two) is her tireless fight off the field for equal pay. “This journey into women’s [soccer] has been epic, it has been vast,” Rose says.
And it’s not just pay inequity that plagues the sport. Women’s World Cup team member Sophia Smith reflected in a recent profile for ELLE.com about the league’s myriad struggles, including the explosive systemic abuse scandal that spurred a widespread investigation into trainers, coaches, and team managers.
The sport’s resilience is not lost on Rose. In fact, it heavily influenced her design process. “I was really shocked when I started to uncover all of these things, like the disparities were really shocking,” she says. “Of course, we know there are massive disparities between genders in all arenas. But in sport, particularly in [soccer], I just couldn’t believe the hurdles that women have had to overcome, and what they have come up against to just play the game.”
More surprising to Rose was the fact that many professional female soccer players are forced to pick up second jobs. “Essentially they play for free, often, just to enjoy the game,” she says. “It has been exactly that which has been so inspiring. It is all the joy of the game. It really is for the love of it. These women’s stories, their individual situations, have been really moving to understand.”
On July 21, the U.S. Women’s National Team will have its first World Cup match against New Zealand in a bid to defend their title. If they win, they will become the first team in soccer history—men’s or women’s—to pick up three consecutive titles. But no matter the outcome on the field, they win best dressed.
Senior Editor
Rose is a Senior Editor at ELLE overseeing features and projects about women’s issues. She is an accomplished and compassionate storyteller and editor who excels in obtaining exclusive interviews and unearthing compelling features.