Dirk Bikkembergs: Putting Sports To The Forefront
By Mari Davis
Photos by Giovanni Pucci

MILAN, Jan 15, 2004/ FW/ --- While the Super Bowl fever is heating up in the U.S., Dirk Bikkembergs put soccer on the forefront last Sunday in Milan.

Bikkemberg who is the 'Official Designer' for Inter FC 2003-2004 season uniforms, decided to fuse fashion and sports wherein world-class soccer players became models on the runway, while future champs of the junior teams run and practice along the sidelines in Bikkembergs Sport designs.

While not totally embracing the hedonistic principles discussed by Thorstein Veblen in his “Theory of the Leisure Class,” Dirk Bikkembergs’ Fall 2004 collection came close to it.

Opulent, rich and elegant, the track pants in ultra soft leather and the fox collars on bomber jackets is to die for if you are a sports aficionado.

And he did not cozen on the colors either. Red, gold, green dominated the collection.

There are also gray and beige to those who want to go unnoticed. But don’t be deceived with the neutral colors. The graphical zippers and the collars are headturners.

And the “cutest” of all, a word I will use loosely because it is not cutesy, but more on the masculine side, is the solitaire soccer football printed on the sweaters.

Football fever, i.e. soccer, is high in Milan, with the hometown team a favored winner of the cup this season.

That's something not done on the U.S. runways, putting the pigskin in the forefront of fashion.

Payton Manning, eat your heart out!

Dirk Bikkembergs	Dirk Bikkembergs	Dirk Bikkembergs
Dirk Bikkembergs	Dirk Bikkembergs	Dirk Bikkembergs

Dirk Bikkembergs

Dirk Bikkembergs

Dirk Bikkembergs

Dirk Bikkembergs

Dirk Bikkembergs