The Sports Top Fashion Designers Are Into

Although vogue has undoubtedly been cozying as much as sports in recent times — sponsoring key tournaments, occasions and races, and signing up model ambassadors — some designers choose to take a seat on the sidelines.

“Competition, however organized, has always made me uneasy,” says Rick Owens.

While masking the autumn 2026 runway reveals in New York, London, Milan and Paris, WWD reporters polled a broad cross-section of designers about whether or not they interact in or comply with any sports.

Sometimes there have been lengthy, awkward pauses.

“Hmmm, no,” Lazaro Hernandez provides with a burst of laughter, whereas Jack McCollough, his wingman at Loewe, provides: “We’re not sports people — at all!”

Others confessed a liking to the whole lot from ice dancing and soccer to browsing. Here’s what they needed to say:

Stacey Bendet, Alice + Olivia: “I’ve always loved equestrian sports, and even more now that my daughter competes. Riding is this incredible balance of precision, athleticism and style. It’s one of the only sports where performance and beauty feel completely intertwined. I love that combination of strength and elegance!”

Tory Burch: “Tennis has always been my favorite sport. I grew up on a farm in Valley Forge with a red clay court, where my family’s ideal Saturday night out was a competitive match that would last until 1 a.m. It’s a great combination of discipline, movement and pure joy. I love the rhythm of the game, the focus it demands, and the way it clears your head. I have always gravitated toward simple white pieces on the court — the perfect polo with a pleated skirt or a classic piqué dress. That effortless, timeless spirit became the inspiration for our tennis collections.”

Wes Gordon, Carolina Herrera: “I just came back from a weeklong ski trip where our 3- and 4-year-olds discovered skiing for the first time. Seeing their joy and exhilaration on the slopes was pure magic.”

Gabriela Hearst: “I’m very involved with soccer right now. We have to go to London to fit 22 players and a delegation of 70 people. (Hearst is dressing Uruguay’s national team for the FIFA World Cup 2026). Through soccer, I got to work with (art director) Peter Miles, and now he’s one of my closest friends and collaborators. I never spoke so much about soccer in my life. It’s like religion in South America. You don’t have an option.”

Tommy Hilfiger: “Tennis has all the time been a ardour of mine — each enjoying and watching. I really like the thrill, the self-discipline, the heritage. It’s a sport that blends precision and energy, which actually resonates with me as a designer. I attempt to play as usually as I can and each time I’m residence, I follow and play with associates. It’s a part of my routine — one thing I genuinely look ahead to. Tennis is about focus and rhythm. Every level is a reset — you need to keep current, regulate, and belief your instincts. That mindset is similar to constructing a model or designing a group. There’s custom, however there’s additionally fixed evolution.

“It clears my head. Being on the court forces you to disconnect from everything else and concentrate on the moment. It’s competitive, but it’s also meditative. I always walk off the court feeling energized and inspired.”

Rocco Iannone, Ferrari Lifestyle: “I was a classical ballet dancer for six years, but I started boxing two years ago as a way to let off steam and it’s since been very beneficial. I was wary of starting boxing but I found out there are many similarities between the two disciplines in the coordination of the movements. In fact, [successful Ukrainian boxer] Vasiliy Lomachenko studied traditional Ukrainian dance and ballet for years to become a boxer.”

Simon Porte Jacquemus: “I love football (soccer) — the French national team. I’m so excited for the World Cup. I do have the scarf and a lot of the kit already. I love when France is playing all together — it’s beautiful. It creates a moment we are all together, like the Olympic Games or the World Cup, so it’s nice.”

Chemena Kamali, Chloé: “I love watching ice skating. It’s such a bubble, and a ritual as well, with the looks, the hair and makeup, and the movement, and obviously this culture of these highly ambitious young girls that have this dream. I also like going to big tennis matches, like Roland-Garros (The French Open). I love to watch tennis. I think it’s an interesting sport from a psychological perspective as well.”

Norma Kamali: “While I’ve by no means been to a basketball sport and have solely seen the massive video games partially on TV, I personally found how a lot I like to throw baskets. Visiting a pal years in the past who had a basketball internet and ball hooked up to their storage door, I tried to throw the ball into the web. To my shock it went into the web. I continued and the quantity of instances into the web over not making it was shockingly impressing people who stopped to observe. All I did was throw the ball into the web and wherever it dropped, I then threw the ball from there. I used to be having fun with the method a lot I couldn’t cease despite the fact that I used to be in a deep sweat. To at the present time I’ve a basketball internet close by, even within the metropolis (City Park). I carry my certainly one of my favourite basketballs to the courts and get misplaced within the hypnotic, meditative rhythm of the sport I play with the basketball and the web.

“P.S.: I leave my basketball under the net at the beach, so anyone who wants to play can pick up the ball and play.”

David Koma, inventive director and founding father of David Koma and inventive director of Blumarine: “I love Formula 1, but my favorite sport is tennis. It was my father’s dream for me to become a tennis player, so I was professionally trained from age 3 to 12 — until I fully realized that I wanted to be a fashion designer and communicated that very clearly. From that age, I pursued a different career, but my love for the sport stays and is one of the ways to communicate with my father. If you go on holidays with him, you have to play. He doesn’t take no as an answer, and it’s a cute tradition to play with my dad every summer. 

“I’ve been quite lucky, because since the beginning of my fashion career, I’ve been working closely with WTA and dressing quite a lot of tennis players, becoming friends with them, and attending their games. The funny thing is that even though I’ve been playing tennis since I was a child, becoming fully engaged and in love with the sport came through getting to know and attending matches of the players.”

Albert Kriemler, Akris: “I do sports for my health, so I run. This morning, I was on the Champ de Mars (in Paris). I love this. As a spectator, we just had the winter Olympics and I liked the ice dancing. You know, being involved in ballet — I just costumed another ballet for John Neumeier — I really admire the ice dance category. And I mean that French couple (Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron) was something we have never seen before.”

Hun Kim, Karl Lagerfeld: “I used to do a half marathon almost every other week. Not anymore. I like watching football and going to the stadium to watch Ajax Amsterdam. It brings people together. They really dress up (in orange) and the whole city becomes one — the whole country actually.”

Duran Lantink: “I play tennis. I like snowboarding. Is sitting on the couch watching series a sport too? (Laughs.) With tennis, I like competition. With snowboarding, I like the fact that, first of all, it’s beautiful. You’re out, it’s thrill seeking because sometimes you go to certain mountains that you haven’t explored and then you always go on a new path. I like the fastness of snowboarding.”

Glenn Martens, inventive director of Diesel and Maison Margiela: “I watch football, especially the World Cup. I’m very pro-Belgian and I lose my voice because I’m very, very scream-y. I usually watch at a bar with all my friends.”

Stella McCartney: “I ride horses all the time, but I’m galloping a lot less just because I’m older and the ground has been very wet in England. There was so much rain in January and February which means there was some soggy soil on my farm, and it’s a little dangerous. Horses have been with me forever. I used to ride with Al [McCartney’s husband Alasdhair Willis], but he’s hung up his riding hat. My daughter Reiley is a huge equestrian, so I’ll ride with her or I’ll ride alone. But then I’m never alone when I’m on my horse.” 

Sean McGirr, McQueen: “I am massively into yoga. I would generally do a lot of yoga in the mornings, before I start work. I’m still perfecting my head stand — I haven’t gotten there yet. But I would say, yoga and Pilates, and then I’m also really into weights. I find when we’re in a really busy period, my real stress reliever is lifting weights. I absolutely love it. I like to be with friends when I do yoga. I don’t really do it by myself. There’s a bunch of us in London who do it together during the week. It’s mostly intense vinyasa, Reformer Pilates, things like this — so, quick. I find I get too bored when it’s yin yoga. It’s not really for me, unfortunately. I can sit in a position for 15 minutes, but then I’ll just fall asleep.”

Camille Miceli, Pucci: “ I do Iyengar yoga every morning when I wake up. It gives me energy and puts me in a good mood! I also enjoy a lot dancing classes with 80’s fever music. I sweat like crazy and detox. To watch, I love ice skating, I used to go a lot with Gilles Dufour who introduced me to it. I enjoy the grace and of course the looks!”

Pierpaolo Piccioli, Balenciaga: “I practice surfing since about four or five years, whenever I can at my place in Nettuno (Italy). I started surfing when I was like 14 and then I stopped because I had a little accident, but I decided it was time to go back. I like that you don’t think: You just have to think about the wave. You have to be there in the moment.”

Alessandro Sartori, Zegna: “I love driving vintage cars, and it is a passion that dates as far back as my childhood and my deep interest in 1950s and 1960s design. My first vintage car was a blue Ford Mustang Fastback 289 from 1965 and I sought that particular car because I had the precise model when I was a child.”

Amy Smilovic, Tibi: “Tennis, because it’s the visual embodiment of grit and elegance.”

Paul Smith: “I swim every morning between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., but I don’t swim very well — nobody taught me. Famously, I do ‘the swan’ when I don’t want to get my hair wet, or I do the backstroke badly when I’m OK about having wet hair. I swim between zero and 25 minutes. Depending on the weather, I also cycle to my ‘Saturday job’ [at the Paul Smith store] on Albemarle Street, where I work in the afternoon. I use a very traditional bike for that ride.” (Smith was an avid bicycle owner and racer when he was younger, and had dreamed of changing into an expert earlier than turning to vogue.)

Sarah Staudinger, Staud: “I grew up in a house where boxing was always on, so I’ve always been drawn to combat sports. I love basketball too, but UFC is probably the sport I’m most obsessed with watching live — it’s completely electric. What I love about UFC and boxing is how technical they are while still being incredibly entertaining. I think people are often surprised by how strong the female fan base around UFC really is. On the participation side, I’m more of a racket-sports person. Lately, I’ve been into padel and pickleball.”

Dries Van Noten: “I walk a lot, and I love swimming, but I prefer to swim in the sea. Luckily enough, we have a house in the south of Italy where the sea is just 16 steps down. That’s ideal. When I’m there I swim five, six times a day, and I love it.”

Vera Wang: “Figure skating. I love it because it’s the only sport, quite frankly, that not only do you have to be an insane athlete…and I mean did you ever try to stand on the ice on a 16th of an inch blade, like a knife, and you’re throwing yourself at 20-30 miles an hour, and you have to jump and spin, and the range of movement and choreography, and you have to do it to music and you have to be costumed and to present. Even gymnastics is nothing compared to skating…. I’m very involved in the International Skating Union and the United States Figure Skating Association.” 

Victor Weinsanto: “I was a ballet dancer from the age of 4 to 17. For me, dance is art and sports is the same. I love watching figure skating, especially ice dancing. I watched the Olympics and the French couple (Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron) delivered such emotional and beautiful performance. I absolutely loved it.”

Christian Wijnants: “I did a lot of gymnastics as a kid. Sometimes if I can’t sleep, I imagine the exercises because I know them almost by heart…. Unfortunately, I don’t really practice a lot of gymnastics anymore, because it’s a sport for young people, but I’m still fascinated by it. I love to watch women’s competitions, and the beam exercise would be my favorite.” 

Yohji Yamamoto: “I was attracted by budo — judo, karate — and was a black belt in both.”

Nicky Zimmermann, Zimmermann: “If you can call this spectating, I recently spent time researching the women’s cricket teams that formed in Australia in the 1920s. I just loved their spirit in forging a path in a traditionally male-dominated arena. My husband and son are cricket fans, so I found a way to weave cricket patches into our fall ‘26 collection as a little shoutout to them, which I found hilarious!”

Antonin Tron, Balmain: “For me, it’s [surfing] not even a sport. It’s a practice, and it’s something that requires a very strong dedication. It goes beyond physical activity. It’s about a connection. Every day I’m checking the weather patterns in the Atlantic to see what’s going on. Sometimes, I disappear. It’s the best drug you can ever get.”