Somewhere in the last few years the tracksuit stopped apologising. We took it the rest of the way: crystals on the shoulders, gold on the zip, and a velour that belongs at a table, not a gym.
Velour is a fabric with a memory. It remembers the 1970s, it remembers a decade of airport lounges, and it remembers, if you let it, that it was once cut for evening. MIDAS lets it. The sets in this chapter are cut from a plush velour with a dense, short nap that photographs like velvet and wears like a sweatshirt. The hooded sets are cotton-rich; the striped sets lean on rayon for a softer fall.
The embellished sets
The scattered-crystal hooded set has a fall of crystals and small pearls across the shoulders, a drawstring hood and a gold zip. It comes in black, burgundy, saxe blue and brown, and in the full size run from 36 to 46. Its sister, the beaded-shoulder set, concentrates the beading on the shoulder seam and is cut for 42 to 46.
Then the one we photographed last, because we kept putting it on: the crystal-embellished set in bitter chocolate, with a stand collar and crystals scattered like something spilled and left.
The striped sets
The side-stripe set has a contrast stripe down each sleeve and leg and a stand collar with ornamental clasps, in a rayon-rich velour with a fluid hand. The three-stripe set is the sportier cousin, with a zip jacket and wide trousers, in burgundy, mink, black and khaki and in sizes 36 to 46. The lace-trim set adds a panel of lace appliqué across the chest, in khaki, brown and black.
The bomber sets
Two sets pair a bomber with matching trousers. The varsity-trim zip bomber set has a striped rib at the collar, cuff and hem in the way American college jackets do. The polka-dot side-stripe set puts a dotted blouse with striped trousers, in two-tone ecru and black, and is the set most likely to be split up and worn separately.
And a dress
The colour-block hooded velour dress is the tracksuit’s evening cousin: a hooded column in two tones, with a contrast side stripe, cut for 42 to 46. It is the piece we would send a customer who says she does not wear dresses.
The whole velour edit sits in Sets and Suits. For stockists, velour sets are ordered as pairs, and the crystal-scattered hooded set in black is where we would start.
