Image
Formula 1 partnership with A$AP Rocky and Puma © Puma
WORDS BY Noelle Faulkner
JULY 23, 2024
Over the past few years, it has felt like you can’t swing the Monaco Grand Prix Louis Vuitton trophy case without smacking into a headline claiming Formula 1 is fashion’s new playground. “Formula 1 is the sports world’s most stylish event,” said Vogue UK; “The next street style capital? The Formula 1 paddocks,” wrote Vogue US; “If you love fashion, you should watch Formula 1,” advised The Cut. For context, this is my world — I’ve spent my entire adult life working within these media circles and mastheads, and attempting to bridge the cultural gap between fashion and automotive/motorsport. So when this sartorial fascination kicked off, it felt like a cultural reset. Finally, the hard-to-crack surface of luxury fashion was beginning to embrace Formula 1, beyond the legacy forged by Sir Lewis Hamilton, of course.
With curiosity, I watched as streetwear labels created interesting and desirable capsule collections in collaboration with teams, such as Rhude’s drop with McLaren and Japanese avant-garde brand Sacai’s partnership with Mercedes-AMG. I noted the rise in glamorous race attendees doing grid walks and limited-edition watch drops, how merchandise lines expanded to driver-founded apparel and the normality of drivers now elegantly flexing in the paddock. Yet, for all the superfluous claims, I still have a bone to pick: Where’s the luxury? Where’s the permanency? And where’s the brand identity? The depth at which fashion and Formula 1 is engaging, especially at the pointy end where one would expect the world’s most expensive sport to play, is in reality, disappointingly shallow.
“We see these fashion brands just slapping their names on the merch, it’s not a whole package.”
Needing an outlet, I called the only person I knew who could validate my feelings— Rashi Gaur, a long-time Formula 1 fan, fashion savant, and the India-based creator behind Hamazinglew —AKA the unofficial but definitive Instagram-based guide to Hamilton’s fashion ‘fits. For those who don’t follow her, know that Gaur is that fan at the intersection of fashion and Formula 1. It turns out, I wasn’t crazy. Gaur felt the same—the headlines may be praising Formula 1’s fashion engagements, but to those who bridge both, Formula 1 simply isn’t doing enough.
“One thing that comes to mind when we talk about sports teams and luxury brands collaborating, is what Zegna did with Real Madrid,” she offers, after thinking about what Formula 1 could be doing better. The Zegna-Real Madrid collaboration saw the luxury house design a collection of chic merchandise end-to-end, which included accessories, suiting, and casual wear. Gaur points out that the collection had a huge campaign, the players were well-styled, and it showed a high level of luxury execution. This, she says, is the blindspot in Formula 1’s fashion strategy. “We see these fashion brands just slapping their names on the merch, it’s not a whole package,” says Gaur. “You might see someone like Palm Angels collaborating with Haas or a Tommy Hilfiger capsule collection with Mercedes, but you don’t see the brand’s identity anywhere in the teams’ merchandise—there’s a lack of execution.” And Gaur is right. It’s a luxury-aligned strategy that seems wildly missed.
Take a look at the impact of the 2024 Olympic team uniforms designed by fashion identities, for example Pigalle’s Stéphane Ashpool’s designs for France or Yohji Yamamoto’s football kits for Japan under the Adidas brand Y-3, and even Ralph Lauren’s designs for Team USA. Imagine if Formula 1 team merchandise could tap into the same spirit that aligns brand association, fan community, and the luxury image it seeks to maintain. “It’s crazy to me that no team has even done a race or mechanic-inspired overall,” says Gaur. “Or that the teams themselves are not creating core merchandise, not capsule collections, that are just more stylish. It’s still polo shirts and that kind of thing. None of the teams are experimenting. At least make merchandise fans will want to wear outside of the races.”
.avif)
Image
The Zegna-Real Madrid collaboration © Zegna
Image
The Zegna-Real Madrid collaboration © Real Madrid
Image
2024 French Olympic and Paralympic team uniforms, designed by Stéphane Ashpool and manufactured by Le Coq Sportif © Le Coq Sportif
Image
Yohji Yamamoto’s football kits for Japan under the Adidas brand Y-3
© The Yomiuri Shimbun/AP Images
Image
2024 French Olympic and Paralympic team uniforms, designed by Stéphane Ashpool and manufactured by Le Coq Sportif © Le Coq Sportif
Herein lies an issue: The traditional and outdated moves of Formula 1 are up against a brave new world of young fans, community engagement, and a need to stay relevant.
It’s very weird that we still find ourselves in a place where a 7-time World Champion athlete wearing sequins can cause mass carbon-fiber clutching (or cause such a bashing of the keys that someone like Gaur has to limit her Instagram comments), because historically, Formula 1 and fashion had enjoyed decades-long engagements.
Some of the longest-running sponsors of the sport have been fashion brands. Benetton was one of the first to enter the sport and became a motorsport household name in the ‘80s and ’90s and the Hugo Boss era at McLaren (and then Mercedes-Benz) was one of the most iconic fashion partnerships in Formula 1 and helped shape the modern identity of the team. Even if older fans might not want to admit it, image has always been king. From Sir Jackie Stewart’s style to James Hunt’s iconography, drivers have always had myth and an image to maintain.
A fantastic example of the shortsightedness of Formula 1 is what I often refer to as the ‘monumental flop’ of Alphatauri. Here was an Italian minimalist brand with a Formula 1 team in the palm of its hand at a time when the tech elite aesthetic was booming, anchored by cool, tech-core brands like Allbirds, Uniqlo, Arc’Teryx, Common Projects and Zegna. Had it used the platform of Formula 1 to its marketing potential, Alphatauri could easily have elevated itself to a top-tier ‘stealth set’ brand. Instead, it fumbled the bag—how many Formula 1 fans reading this actually know that Alphatauri is even a fashion label? Unless you’ve googled it, my guess is few.
The existence of these partnerships alone does not mean they are being maximized to their full potential.
Image
Ferarri Fall-Winter 2023-2024 Runway during Milan Fashion Week © Aldama/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images
Today, we see Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger, Palm Angels, Puma, Tumi, and various watch brands stand as team partners. But the existence of these partnerships alone does not mean they are being maximized to their full potential.
Soon, a similar opportunity will be presented to Ferrari. When Hamilton, a newly-minted Dior ambassador, joins in 2025, his sartorial prowess will offer major opportunities to elevate Ferrari Style, Scuderia’s in-house luxury fashion brand. In 2019, John Elkann, C.E.O. of Ferrari's parent company Exor—which has a 24 percent stake in Christian Louboutin and rumored interest in other Italian fashion houses—hired ex-Armani and Dolce & Gabbana designer Rocco Iannone to head up Ferrari Style and showed its collections at Milan Fashion Week, signaling that the brand had aspirations to be a serious fashion player. A few years on, and the luxury lifestyle and fashion arm of the car company is proving to be a masterstroke in applying historic racing and automotive design codes to fashion. If you ever find yourself in Milan, Miami or Atlanta, I encourage checking out the flagship Ferrari stores to see what I mean.
For fashion, sport offers huge cultural power, a global audience, and active communities that it cannot connect with alone—in other sports, we’re already seeing the benefits brands reap when they’re willing to take the relationship beyond the track or court. Look at the influence of Hamilton or how he’s led the way for other drivers to use fashion as a way to communicate, self-express or give weight to a brand. As the first Chinese Formula 1 Driver and self-confessed fashion enthusiast, Zhou Guanyu has become a beloved fashion identity in his own right. Noting the economic and cultural cache Guanyu has in his home country, a significant market for luxury brands, the young driver was sponsored by Prada in his rookie year and is now an ambassador for Dior, Lululemon, HSBC, and Hennessy.
Image
Ferarri Fall-Winter 2023-2024 Runway during Milan Fashion Week © Aldama/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images
There is one problem with fashion dipping into the racing scene, however, and it’s that often, the collaborations are merely cosplay—culture as a costume, let’s call it. This was the criticism Formula 1 faced from race fans when it collaborated with Puma’s new creative director A$AP Rocky on its official merchandise. It led to some editorial love, sure, but many fans felt no connection with the drop, citing it as a cash grab. Outside of the Las Vegas attendees caught up in the hype, the collection failed to capture the wider fanbase’s heart. As Gaur’s idea identifies, a successful collaboration should not feel cheap or contrived. It must play upon the shared characteristics of the two partners to create a line where the sum is greater than the parts.
Fashion holds a mirror up to culture, reflecting our deep desires and societal undertones. Whenever the world is yearning for escape, freedom, or a sense of control, as it is today, motorsports, motorbikes, and cars always make an appearance. Think of the hedonism of the ‘90s, reflected by Thierry Mugler’s iconic motorbike corsets, made famous in George Michael’s ‘Too Funky’ video; past collections that oozed cool through automotive references from Prada, Givenchy, Tom Ford, and Louis Vuitton; or the racing-adjacent need for speed found in recent collections and campaigns from Balenciaga, Casablanca, Gucci, Ottolinger, and Celine.
Images
Formula 1 faced criticism from race fans when it collaborated with Puma’s new creative director A$AP Rocky on its official merchandise © Puma
There’s a real opportunity for the sport and the fashion world to take their relationship to the next level, but only if the sport is willing to turn in.
Motorsport and fashion have a lot in common, particularly when it comes to the pursuit of excellence in design, craftsmanship, engineering, and materials. They both play with signals of belonging and association—but for Formula 1, fans must feel included in the strategy.
With F1’s global rise coinciding with this moment where people seek new definitions of community, there’s a real opportunity for the sport and the fashion world to take their relationship to the next level — but only if the sport is willing to turn in.
