Tory Burch’s New Sportswear Line Was Inspired by Wes Anderson

Tory Burch’s brand new line, Tory Sport, is loaded with casual, classic sportswear, perfect for wearing to the gym, from the gym, at the gym, and all times in between. Just don’t call it “athleisure.”

“You know, there used to be something called leisure suits… I can’t really explain it, it’s just not my favorite name!” Burch told Yahoo Style Wednesday, at the opening of the Tory Sport pop-up store in New York’s SoHo neighborhood—the very same location in which she debuted her namesake line 11 years earlier.

Instead, Tory Sport’s Fall 2015 collection includes a category of clothing called ‘Coming & Going’—which joins a range performance wear for a wide variety of athletic activities, including tennis, golf, yoga, running, and water sports. There are about 150 pieces in total, ranging in price from $55 for performance tops to $550 for outerwear.

Burch, who’s been interested in doing sportswear for eight years—and actually began working on Tory Sport three years ago—saw a gap in the market for classic and elegant, yet still functional, clothing. “For me, I wasn’t finding the kind of [sportswear] I loved from high school and college. It’s all the same [today], very bright and colorful. So I wanted to look at the elegance of sports and athletes,” she says.

So, inspired by Wes Anderson’s 2001 cult classic The Royal Tenenbaums and 1970s athletes (she name-checked Swedish tennis star Björn Borg is a biggie), Burch designed a collection of clothing that looks as chic on the court as off. There are impossibly soft cashmere sweaters (many with wicking properties for aeration), neoprene skirts, leggings (in four lengths!), yoga pants, sports bras, lightweight track jackets, gym bags, swimwear, and even a wetsuit—all done in a clean, varsity-esque palette of navy, white, creme, maroon, and blue. Stripes and micro-prints also feature heavily. Burch, an avid horseback rider, says she can envision expanding to equestrian gear and more outerwear in the future.

Most of the pieces, even the more sporty ones, can be mixed and matched. “I wanted a very focused collection where running could work with yoga, and that could work back with tennis… These are things that can take you from the gym to lunch, or to the airport, or out to dinner, even. And so I wanted it to be able to cross merchandise, as well.”

For now, Tory Sport—which exists separately from Burch’s mainline brand—will be sold exclusively online at TorySport.com, and in the pop-up on Elizabeth Street—which also includes various branded athletic equipment, a monogramming station, and charming commissioned artwork by illustrator Kelly Marie Beeman, whom Burch says she discovered on Instagram. A New York City flagship store is planned for 2016 in the Flatiron District.

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