Sporty? It's the Olympics, Stupid!

Sporty? It's the Olympics, Stupid!

LONDON — Shorts, pantsuits, elongated polo shirts caressing the calves and masses of mesh — why would funky London fashion suddenly take up sporty dressing?
 It’s the Olympics, stupid!

This year has been a game changer in British attitudes toward sports, leaving behind the typical ironic and laconic talk about being “good losers” and instead rejoicing in gold medal glory.

So it is with fashion. While New York designers appear to be moving away from their American sportswear roots, the London summer 2013 collections are embracing dynamic dressing.

The looping ruffle at theJ.W. Anderson collection, inserted on a curve in a short, sporty dress, suggested a new take on androgyny. So did the flare of fabric around the hips of soft trousers. That was reinforced by sleek boyish hair and sports sneakers or boots.

The designer Jonathan Anderson, who came to women’s wear via men’s, and also has a collaboration with Topshop, played with sexual ambiguity. He called his show “The Treatment Room,” suggesting some film noir horrors. (A black bandeau wrapped one bosom on a flower-scattered patterned pantsuit.) But the words applied to the complex treatment of fabrics and surface textures, what the designer called “three-dimensional surfaces, modern craft and the glorification of fabrics.”

So there was a spongy quilted neoprene jacket (and bag) with a tiny, graphic print dress; and mannish Prince of Wales check tailoring. The show had an intriguing, offbeat feeling.

 The Day-Glo lace outfits that closed Simone Rocha ’s summer 2013 show caught perfectly her mix of the innocent and the subversive. The designer, who seems to take a big stride forward each season, said she was inspired by Ed Templeton photographs of youngsters kissing. Hence, the sweet naughtiness of clothes that hinted at school uniforms in prim colors — but they had windows on the body with inserts of mesh, lace or crochet.

For Mulberry , fashion is still in the bags — big, bold, colorful, imaginative and practical. It is not that they steal the show. (That place is reserved for the dressy poodles mincing down the runway in pooch peacoats and collars.) Yet however hard the brand’s creative director Emma Hill works on spring styles, like bold, sculptured coats or the summer cape in pliable leather that opened the show, the bag is the thing.

They are given names: “Alexa” after the It girl Alexa Chung, or “Del Rey” for the singer Lana Del Rey, who sat front row next to Kate Moss.

The clothes were strong and sporty with bold biker jackets, fluid pleated dresses and even a floral-patterned jumpsuit. (Cue for identical fabric as a bag.) This matchy-matchy treatment of the collection denigrated its impact, but that is mainly because the bags are so powerful.