ABSTRACT
Dress and costume history is a much wider topic than the prevailing fashions of the time, and the history of sport provides many examples of costume solutions dictated by exercising in varying weather conditions, and also, enforcing conventions and rules. We can see this in the 1750 painting Mr and Mrs Andrews by Thomas Gainsborough. The painting of Mr Robert (1725–1806) and Mrs Frances Andrews (circa 1732–1780) has been described as a “triple portrait”—of Robert, Frances, and their land. As part of the landed gentry, living off rent and other assets, the young couple had no need to work, and could choose to dress as they liked. It is sportswear to symbolize the idea of leisure itself. Importantly, Robert and Frances are not aristocrats. Their combined bloodlines are relatively new, and indicate an aristocracy of wealth, rather than of old families. This is studied, leisured “bling,” eighteenth-century style. No wonder they look confidently back at us directly from the canvas.
Since then, sports clothing has changed the whole fashion industry, such as when, at the 2021 Biden presidential inauguration, Vice President Kamala Harris' nephew-in-law wore $2,000 Dior x Air Jordans 1 shoes with a dress suit.
