Rizzoli Dirk Bikkembergs: 25 Years of Athletes and Fashion

This volume marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the groundbreaking fashion designer who bridged the exclusivity and sex appeal of fashion and the universality and masculinity of sports. One of the much-written-about Antwerp Six group of influential cutting-edge Belgian fashion designers, Dirk Bikkembergs audaciously chose to focus his designs on the intersection between fashion and sport, particularly pieces designed for or inspired by soccer. Seeing sports as a universal language, Bikkembergs designed haute couture for athletes who are themselves already aesthetic icons of masculinity. The first designer to hold a fashion show in a sports stadium, Bikkembergs uses his local soccer team as a laboratory for styling with the latest fabric technology, creating designs that are sexy yet comfortably flexible, from exclusive jackets to high-performance underwear and sporty street shoes. In this handsome book, all of his one-of-a-kind designs are showcased in photographs taken in various locations around the world.