David Koma SPRING 2021 READY-TO-WEAR Collection

David Koma SPRING 2021 READY-TO-WEAR

Had David Koma not followed his heart to a career in fashion, he would have possibly been a tennis player. His love of the sport is obvious when you consider how many times he has dressed the former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova. How many times? Well, it’s more than he can remember. Koma comes from a sporting family; his brother is a professional tennis player and has his own academy in Saint Petersburg, his father plays at least four times a week, and his mother is a former gymnast. “I always had sports around me; my father handed me a tennis racket when I was four,” said the designer from his east London atelier during a preview of his spring ’21 collection. “This season especially, I felt like I wanted to do something that I loved.”

His tennis research led him to Chris Evert, the player who wore a diamond line bracelet on court. During an early round of the U.S. Open in 1978 it broke and fell off and they had to stop play while she looked for it; thus the term tennis bracelet was coined. “I never knew that story,” he admits, “but it immediately resonated with me.” Not that Koma is ever in need of a reason to deck his collections in crystals (his sparkling showstoppers have, over the years, seduced everyone from Beyoncé to Gigi Hadid to Kendall Jenner), but he took the idea and ran with it.

It manifested in lattice sweaters hand-embroidered in crystal baguettes, and other twinkling ropes woven through tennis whites cut into body-con asymmetric minidresses (these for sure wouldn’t get past the umpire on Wimbledon’s Centre Court), as well as more gimmicky spangled sweatbands, visors, and even a crystal-encrusted tennis racket.

Nineties pap shots of a post-gym Princess Di, a keen tennis player, also made an appearance on his mood board. That explains his branded sweatshirts and cycling shorts, an idea he took a step further to include matching zip-fronted Lycra jerseys. “Cyclists are suddenly in abundance around here,” he said, referring to the sharp increase he’s noticed in commuters favoring bikes over the Tube.

He filmed the video at a private house in the countryside with its own tennis court sans audience. The only downside? “Not being able to invite any guests,” he said, due to current COVID-19 rulings. “I would have loved to have staged a show there and invited 50 people to stay for dinner after,” he mused. “Maybe next time.”

See every single look from David Koma SPRING 2021 READY-TO-WEAR Collection in the gallery, below :