PMA Department Chair Samantha Noelle Sheppard’s essay "Fit Check" about women’s sportswear can be found in the newly published book Look Good, Feel Good, Play Good: Nike Apparel, from Nike/Phaidon Press.
“Spanning more than 350 pages and including over 575 images, Look Good, Feel Good, Play Good visualizes the relationship between women and the garments they wear through five design archetypes from sporting history: warm-ups, jerseys, leggings, sport bras and shorts. Steeped in narrative, history, and Nike’s abundant archive, the book’s rich imagery spans reproductions of Nike’s trade catalogues that date back to the early 1980s, period and contemporary photography, sketches, advertisements, fabric swatches, seasonal color palettes, original design proposals and patents, logos, product and campaign shots, and everything in between.”
Sheppard spoke to us about the inspiration for her essay: “I was so excited to be asked to contribute to the first book to chart a visual history of women's sportswear and Nike's pivotal role in that history. I was asked to think about jerseys and uniforms, and I wanted to use a modern mode of analysis—the "fit check"—to explore the meanings attached to individual and team uniforms. So, this work really allowed me to highlight some iconic looks and images that have circulated widely in popular culture. They all tell stories—a working-class girl from Watts sets a track world record in blazing colors. A new mother returns to the court in a body-hugging and potentially life-saving outfit. A queer player celebrating her World Cup goal defies her country’s racist and homophobic nationalism. A disparaged woman athlete, refusing shame and convention, removes her wig. These narratives are material and meaningful. These women athletes, and so many others, show how sporting and social identities are styled, let out or hemmed in, by and through design.”
In the following excerpt from “Fit Check,” Sheppard discusses influential women’s sportswear looks, including Florence Griffith Joyner’s famed plum one-legger:
“The fit checks I examine here capture moments of delight and controversy within the contemporary history of women’s competitive tennis, track-and-field, and soccer: the excesses exalted by Florence “Flo-Jo” Griffith Joyner’s plum one-legger; the conventions smashed by Serena Williams’s (super)powerful black catsuit; the provocation (counter)posed by Megan Rapinoe’s outstanding uniformity; and the defiant growth revealed by Sha’Carri Richardson’s changing coiffure…”
Sheppard continues: “Griffith Joyner contravened the blandness of track uniforms through innovative redesigns of traditional leotards and bodysuits. She also used nails, jewelry, makeup, and hair to produce what Jillian Hernandez calls an “aesthetic of excess,” pointing to “diasporic iconographies and practices of bodily styling, art making, and cultural production” specific to Black women that use clothing and accessories to embellish and critique broader notions of play, pleasure, and personhood.”
Read the full essay in Look Good, Feel Good, Play Good: Nike Apparel, available to purchase now.
