Speedo High Fashion Performance Suits
From the time I was six years old up until the age of eighteen, I was a competitive swimmer. My level of commitment to the sport was so extreme when I reached the elite level that I practically became defined by my participation in the sport. While I resented the fact that people seemed to reject the notion that I had an identity outside of the sport, it truly was a huge part of my life, and a lifestyle that I will forever be familiar with. The lifestyle of a competitive female swimmer entails ruthless training regiments, carbo-loading, slightly green tangled hair, permanent raccoon eyes from goggle pressure, unsightly training suit tan lines, inevitably masculine muscles, and being forbidden from shaving for months at a time (yes, months). Swimming is many things. But one thing that swimming is not, is glamorous. So when I found out that Speedo LZR Racer competition swimsuits, of all things, were hitting the runway, I was in complete and utter disbelief.
To give some background on the LZR suit, it is a full length body suit created to shape your body into the most efficient and aerodynamic form possible to ensure the highest level of performance. Since the beginning of my swimming career, swimsuit technology has drastically evolved. I was in my young teenage years when performance body suits were introduced. Prior to this, even the most advanced competition suits were in the standard one piece cut. What many people do not realize is how impossibly tight and difficult these body suits are. When you are preparing for a race, you better allow at least twenty minutes to get changed into your suit in time. At swim meets, athletes bond over the difficulty of putting on these suits. In the locker room, it is always crowded with fellow athletes changing into the suit, sharing tricks for making the experience less of a hassle. In order to get the suits on, most swimmers employ the technique of placing plastic bags over their feet in order to slide the suit up their legs. Ripping one of these expensive suits while attempting to put it on is a common occurrence.
Leading up to the 2008 Olympics and shortly after, the technological advancements of competitive swimsuits had gotten to the point where they would make an athlete dramatically faster than they would be without them. An unprecedented amount of world records had been broken, there were many different brands of competition suits, and there was debate over whether these suits gave athletes an unfair advantage. Eventually, it was decided that the situation had gotten out of hand, and regulations were put into place in order to level the playing field, banning many of these suits, including the LZR. Though the suit is no longer used for competitive purposes, genius fashion students from the London College of Fashion, University of Falmouth and the University of Huddersfield have taken these suits from the swimming pool to the runway. Although I have to say that the LZR swimsuits would definitely be at the bottom of the list of materials that I would use to design high fashion couture, these designs are truly incredible and impressive.
Source: Thecoolist
