If you haven’t opened a fashion magazine in the past couple of months, let me catch you up: ‘sport luxe, sport luxe, sport luxe‘ (yo Google, I know that looks like keyword stuffing but pinky promise it’s legit).

I was initially (actually, I think I still am) undecided on sport luxe, because it seems to fall into two distinct camps. The first is made up of crazy colours, relaxed silhouettes and a vibe that somehow manages to feel simultaneously retro and futuristic.

The more stuff like this I saw, the closer I came to realising what it reminded me of. Then, all of a sudden, it dawned on me.

Yup, the reason a lot of sport luxe walks the line between past and future is because we first saw it a movie set in 2015 that was made in 1989. If you don’t know that I’m talking about Back to the Future II by now, I’m not sure we can be friends anymore. The fact that I love this crazy, experimental side of sport luxe is probably skewed by the fact that I’m a massive BTTF fan. So much so that I actually bought a replica of the cap Marty McFly wears in 2015. Judge at will.

But there is another side of sport luxe…the one I hate.

Above is a shot of Astrid Andersen’s AW12 collection, apparently inspired by Shaolin monks and The Wu Tang Clan. Maybe it’s just me, but that’s not what I get from the items shown. I get Eastern European tourist and Lady Sovereign. In case you don’t remember Lady Sovereign (it has been like five years since she was in the charts…), here she is…

For me, this is what it comes down too – shiny fabrics, baggy cropped clothes and sportswear have a heritage of usually being 1. very cheap looking and 2. easily imitated. I can’t get too excited about sport luxe because I know places like Primark and H&M will be flooded with this sort of stuff by the end of the month, and (because of the emphasis placed on sport luxe in the mainstream fashion press) EVERYONE will buy it.

Until then, I can only recommend going totally all out with it and rocking the bright, kooky side of the trend. And I can’t think of a much better kooky sport luxe icon to get tips from than Kreayshawn.