Dao-Yi Chow Has a New Take on Tennis Apparel

Sergio Tacchini Lookbook

There’s never been a better time to be an activewear or athleisure brand than right now. We’re living in an era in which yoga pants have become office attire, where bike shorts are going out musts, when slouchy sweatshirts are the celebrity style norm. But what many activewear and athleisure brands have let slip by the wayside in favor of cool is classical savoir faire. When was the last time your tracksuit came with pick stitching? Or when was the last time your comfortable jersey pants were cut like proper suiting trousers, not joggers? Dao-Yi Chow, of Public School, wants to bring some ready-to-wear smarts back into the performancewear market with his new project: rehabbing Sergio Tacchini.

First question: Who the hell is Sergio Tacchini? If you lived through the ’80s and ’90s, you may remember the label as the official outfitter of John McEnroe—and the unofficial one of Notorious B.I.G. and LL Cool J. Founded in 1966 by Sergio Tacchini, an Italian tennis champion, the brand started out as a tennis gear manufacturer, but became most famous for on-court sponsorships and tracksuits beloved by the hip-hop community. Chow, who was born and raised in New York, remembers both well. “I remember when you thought about tracksuits, that was quintessentially what a tracksuit was: the wrinkle nylon Sergio Tacchini tracksuit,” he told Vogue over an early morning coffee. “Everything about it was very fresh, clean, and structured. That caught my eye very early on: how coordinated it all was, the color blocking, the ease of it all, but it still felt really formal. In a lot of ways it really set the foundation for how I looked at clothes in general.”

Now, as the global creative director of the Sergio Tacchini brand, Chow is trying to reintroduce the high-fashion allure back into activewear. His first collection includes plenty of sport-ready pieces, like sweat-resistant short shorts and technical mesh polos, reimagined with Italian couture details. More than just outfitting players for the courts, Chow wants to make fashionable pieces that can work in real life, where the performance capabilities come as a sort of added bonus. Here, he’s introduced sleek, almost ’70s-style tracksuits that combine a fitted jacket with a tailored pant. “It’s not that you would ever play tennis in this, but you could,” Chow says holding up the trouser. “You could show up in this and leave the courts in this—that’s the concept.”

The ability to fill a market need was what drew the designer—who has spent a decade building his own vocabulary with Maxwell Osborne at Public School—to the brand. “At Public School we experimented with fashion for fashion’s sake, but it feels like there is a purpose here, to this collection, and I think that’s what drew me in to wanting to lead the relaunch,” he says. As we continue to ditch “real” pants in favor of sports-appropriate ones, Chow’s reimagining of this activewear brand feels all the more essential. There’s also womenswear on the way. “When you see the women’s collection—wow,” he pauses. “To me, I’m even more excited about the women’s collection.”

Originally Appeared on Vogue