Move aside, athleisure wear. ‘Athluxury’ is here

The double-breasted bastion of men’s corporate suiting Hugo Boss hit dusty notions of conservative styles out of the park at Milan Fashion Week on Thursday, with an unconventional show at a sports stadium featuring baseball jackets, hoodies and sweatpants, all co-branded with US sportswear label Russell Athletic.

Following the gentle tease of a capsule Boss x Russell Athletic collection in March, which successfully landed on the radar of young shoppers, this second, much bigger swing at transformation by the heritage brand, follows the trend of luxury labels leveraging the youth appeal of sportswear.

“Our first collaborative capsule with Russell Athletic was a phenomenal success,” said Ingo Wilts, chief brand officer for Hugo Boss, following the lavish Milan show which resembled a big budget update of Grease 2, complete with a marching band, cheerleaders and supermodels Gig Hadid, Irina Shayk, Adut Akech and Jordan Barrett.

“We know that younger buyers, in particular, reacted well to the capsule, so much so that we were able to inspire a completely new target group for the Boss brand.”

That Generation K (for Kardashian) customer was present in Milan, with Italian TikTok star Khaby Lame closing the show in front of nearly 200 creators and social media influencers including Elevator Boys, Younes Zarou, and Elisa Maino. US Vogue editor Anna Wintour could not be seen in the sea of iPhones.

The shift in focus for Boss from blazers to baseball caps follows in the designer sneaker footprint of its luxury peers. In 2019, Dior partnered with Nike on a limited edition sneaker and Prada has just teased their latest collaboration with Adidas on the Instagram account of rapper A$AP Rocky.

The Adidas Prada Luna Rossa sneaker costs $1000, while the Boss x Russell Athletic woollen hoodies cost $499, with a Varsity jacket setting you back $949. This is “athluxury”, not athleisure for sprinting or sweat.

To explore this new sector, Boss cherry-picked from the Russell Athletic brand. “We did a lot of research into the DNAs of both brands and dived into our archives,” Wilts said. “Despite all the contrasts, it was noticeable that we have a lot in common, which we then captured in an exciting mix of sportswear meets tailoring.”