When it comes to curating on-court aesthetics, functionality is considered, of course. But so is style, and that means matching your shoes to your purse (or in this case, your jewels to your racket).
Since a number of professional athletes double as brand ambassadors, showcasing their sponsors’ latest fashions on an international stage, I peeked into the world of performance fabrics to learn more about the trends soon to dominate the activewear space.
In mid-July, I attended the Functional Fabric Fair, a trade show dedicated to the performance fabric industry—think hiking gear, activewear, swimwear, technical outerwear—in New York. It’s produced by RX, the same company that organizes the JCK, Luxury, and JIS shows.
At the event, Munich-based freelance designer and trend forecaster Nora Kühner gave a talk on the colors expected to trend in performance-wear fabric in summer 2027.
Kühner was a designer in the sports apparel industry.
Around 2005-2008, she felt the world was changing but the performance-wear industry wasn’t adapting, so around 2010, she shifted her focus to trend forecasting.
Together with an international team of designers from the sports, outdoor, and fashion industries, Kühner explores and analyzes ongoing and emerging trends and their socio-cultural contexts, with the goal of identifying color trends two years in advance.
She and her team crafted eight “color stories” for their summer ’27 forecast, each with three core colors and three accent colors.
Kühner said when creating their forecast, the team began with the idea of dichotomy and the fractures and frictions that are palpable in politics, society, and people’s everyday lives.
The theme is woven throughout all eight color stories, seen as cool and warm tones that challenge each other, paired with intense accents to revive mood and contrast neutral backgrounds.
All In
The “All In” color story is about shades that work together. (Photo courtesy of Nora Kühner fashion design consulting, photo at left by Don Pablo, shutterstock.com)
The first color story, “All In,” features a palette Kühner described as catchy, intense and bright.
Featuring colors she said work well for layering, the story is a nod to not standing alone.
“Color is not a stiff thing. It’s moving and shading, getting in dialogue with other colors, morphing into other colors,” she said.
“We have to develop new aesthetics reflecting our time and not cling to what has always been there.”
For the color stories, the core colors are the most important, she stressed. The secondary hues are there to contour, deepen the mood, and underline the splendor of the core colors.
Create & Connect
The desert-like palette of “Create and Connect” is both intense and soft.
“Create and Connect” is based on the pleasure found in shaping new ideas and finding a new twist.
It features desert-like, outdoorsy colors that have intensity but also reflect soft and shadow-like tones, Kühner said.
While she noted the team does not normally use black or white for these curations, they saw the need to implement it in this story, as it provides grounding.
On Bubbles & Wide Open Spaces
This color story features sky blue, lavender, and smoky blue, contrasted with bright blue, light silvery gray, and a teal.
“We focus only on what is in our bubble, what is next to us, and that’s a little bit difficult in times like these, where we have to get together,” Kühner said of the mood that inspired color story No. 3, “On Bubbles & Wide Open Spaces.”
“We want to encourage people to think outside of the box, get out of the bubble, and get fascinated by the wide perspectives on the horizon that we see.”
The palette features colors that are faded and chalky. It’s about getting away from our “fixation on the past,” she added.
“This is a story that plays with being close to something but also looking out at what is to come,” said Kühner.
Broken Glamour
The 1950s served as inspiration for “Broken Glamour.”
“Broken Glamour” takes cues from the 1950s in its hues, but combined, the palette speaks to the idea that we must reflect on the past without sinking into it, Kühner said.
Its key colors feature an intense pink, a chalky blue and a soft apricot, tones that Kühner described as being “a bit damaged” and “fading out.”
She said it is about bringing together different facets of life and history and telling new stories, creating colorful, cozy atmospheres where there is “evident disruption,” but we retain the ability to move forward and move past it.
“Yesterday is inspiring our tomorrow, not just the present, so [we must] go forward and enjoy what we are doing,” said Kühner.
Summer Haze
“Summer Haze” reflects the magic of warm, natural light through earthy and sunny tones.
“I’ve just returned from my summer vacation, and this is just a perfect reflection of what I lived through,” Kühner said of “Summer Haze.”
The warm palette reflects “a feeling of vagueness, nostalgia for nothing, and the sense of being wrapped up in an undefined state,” the forecast states.
It illustrates the state of mind associated with escaping from the hardship of the daily grind and feeling relaxed, said Kühner.
Renewed Vigor
The TV series “Severance” inspired the mood of “Renewed Vigor.”
Color story No. 6, “Renewed Vigor,” took inspiration from the tones seen in the award-winning Apple TV series “Severance” and features a sporty red, an intense turquoise, and a dark green, with accents that include a soft rose, for “a new appeal,” said Kühner.
The “Renewed Vigor” palette was also designed around the idea that complexity is fertile ground for new ideas.
“We see the beauty, but we also want to break it and make it more interesting,” said Kühner.
There is also a responsibility that comes with the breaking involved in the creative process.
“We know we have to change, we have to get better, in order to not damage our planet more than we have already,” Kühner said.
The Promise of the New
“The Promise of the New” is about reclaiming the power of human imagination. (Photo at right by tom_kung, Shutterstock.com)
The fashion industry is imbued with the promise of always bringing novelty to the world. It is a constant promise that is never fulfilled, said Kühner.
“The Promise of the New” is a story of bright colors and a new spirit, with tones that are lively, playful and, intentionally, a bit artificial.
“We didn’t want this to just be a story about tech, we wanted to connect it to human life and human ideas and the use of technology to shape our environment and our products for human beings,” said Kühner.
“The Promise of the New” is about reclaiming the power of human imagination and a reminder that we are capable of coming up with new ideas and solutions; we don’t have to rely on technology for everything.
“I don’t want to have a personal butler I feed with prompts,” Kühner said. “I prefer to feed you all with my own ideas, which is much more fun, because I can see some reactions on your faces and see whether I’ve reached you and if there is a connection.”
Luminescence
A summery spirit radiates from “Luminescence”
The final color story, “Luminescence,” has a playful, light, shimmering mood and is color at its best, said Kühner.
“Despite all that is not so good, we can make it better,” she said of the palette’s optimistic mood.
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