The
Challenge
Exeat came to us with a vision for a luxury tenniswear collection that felt elegant, premium and feminine, but still worked properly on court.
The brief included tennis dresses, shorts, skirts, skorts and sleeveless polo styles, all needing the right balance of style, comfort, movement and technical detail.
Which is where tenniswear gets interesting.
Because a dress can look beautiful standing still, but if it does not move properly when someone serves, stretches, runs, bends or actually plays tennis, it is not really tenniswear. It is just a very pretty problem.
The client brought competitor tennis dresses and skirts to the first development meeting for inspiration and fit reference. An external model was used at the initial meeting to establish the base size and review competitor garments on the body.
From there, the collection needed to be designed, sampled, fitted, tested and refined into a premium sportswear range that could perform as well as it looked.
The
Solution
We began by reviewing the client’s inspiration garments, discussing the desired fit and direction, and establishing the base size.
Chloe then created initial sketches and colourways for review, before fabrics and trims were selected for the first round of development.
After the initial meeting, all styles and samples were fitted directly on the client, allowing us to refine the garments around the intended wearer and brand vision.
The first collection included two dresses in two colourways, two shorts styles, a skort, a sleeveless polo shirt and sleeveless versions of one of the dresses.
The Jinx dress was initially developed with a full-length front zip, but wearer trials showed that the zip restricted movement and did not work well enough for playing tennis. So the design was reworked.
Useful? Yes.
Slightly annoying after development work? Also yes. But that is exactly why wearer trials exist.
The Nelson dress involved more complex development, with a drop waist, knife pleats and contour seams with piping through the front of the dress. The factory worked closely with us to refine the details, making sure the seam shaping created a flattering silhouette and that the piping remained consistent.
The collar also needed careful development, as it followed the front V-neck shape and included matching satin ribbon stitched to the collar edge.
The skort included built-in shorts with piping around the leg cuffs, plus a drop-waist skirt with knife pleats attached to the shorts. The court shorts also required repeated refinement, especially around the shaped back seams and inserted piping, until the style lines were right.
Samples were sent to different wearers for feedback, helping test fit, movement, comfort and performance before the styles were taken forward.
The finished collection went on to receive press coverage in Vogue, Vanity Fair, Forbes, The Telegraph, Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan.
We were proud to be the pioneers behind Laura’s original product development journey, helping create the first styles and take them through to production and the global market.
Thank g*d for Fazane Fox
Because luxury sportswear is not just about making something look expensive.
It has to move.
This project needed design development, technical fit, wearer trials, fabric and trim sourcing, premium detailing, factory communication and a lot of refinement around movement, comfort and finish.
We helped Exeat turn a luxury tenniswear concept into a developed, production-ready collection with the elegance of fashion and the practical thinking needed for sport.
Pretty tennis dresses? Yes.
Standing-still-only tennis dresses? Absolutely not.
"Thank you all so much for the most amazing development day yesterday!!! We’re still spinning from it. Thank you so much again, best 6 hours ever!"
LAURA / FOUNDER / EXEAT
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