Jean Patou: the Man Who Shaped Sportswear

Abstract

The new way of life along with modernization has allowed people to spare more time for themselves and follow fashion clothes, activities, current events and has increased the participation to recreational activities in daily life. At the same time, the easing of life with the development of industrialization, increasing spare time with machines' reducing the need to human labor, people’s passing to more comfortable life form, feeling economically, socially, psychologically relieved. All these factors have led to the development of entertainment, recreational and sports activities in the first half of the 19th century. During this time, daily clothing forms or clothes adapted from them were used in sporting events. Despite the fact that sport identify with men since it's existence, coming with women's active role in social life, their increasing interest to sport have led to the need for casual and comfortable clothing. That term's designer Jean Patou has been a pioneer of sportswear meeting the need with his designs symbolizing freedom, ease and comfort. In this context, the designer laying the foundation of the concept of sportswear, he has important contributions to the historical development of this type of sportswear and to the formation of the style of clothing that has become synonymous with today's sportswear. In this study, in terms of influencing people it could be said that sport and fashion have the same kind of power and effect each other as a social phenomenon, It is aimed to reveal the contributions of Patou's to the formation and development of sportswear process. In this descriptive study based on the survey model, with the document scanning and document analysis methods it has been tried to explain the development of sportswear and the effect of Patou’s on the process using written, visual sources, museums and accessible private collections. It is determined that the designer has been a pioneer in the creation of sportswear style and during all his life that ended in 1936 he focused on clothing desings for tennis and swimming sports as well as other sports. Approaching to clothing styles of sport type; form, materials, decorations and accessories have been examined and at the present time in clothes specific to the these sports, the traces of Patou’s designs have been observed.