Ever wondered what happens behind-the-scenes of a big sport’s brands new season campaign? I know, I know! Earlier this year I went along to the adidas SS14 shoot, here’s what happened.
So today I changed my Facebook profile picture… to this!
Amazing isn’t it? Just chilling out with my mates heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill, cyclist Laura Trott and sprinter Jodie Williams. While I’d love to say we’d just done a friendly workout together (I always workout wearing pleather), it was actually taken at the photo shoot for the new adidas SS14 workout collection – available online here.
Along with fellow bloggers Alex from Fashercise; Laura, Kim and Rachel from Food & Lycra (no relation) I was invited along to the shoot in Sheffield in early November (easy for the athletes to get to as most are based up north) to see what goes on, get a sneak peak at the new range and style up a model ourselves.
When we arrived we headed straight to the styling room (basically a room in a hotel filled with makeup and hair stylists, stylists and assistants, prs, pas, photographers assistants, everyone – these things are never as glamorous as you might imagine). And this is where we were greeted by rail upon rail of glorious new season kit.
Collaborating with Alex
Outfits had been carefully chosen and labelled for each of the athletes to wear when they arrived later in the day. The outfits were selected with the athletes’ colouring and body shape in mind, cue mild panic when Laura Trott turned up having dyed her blonde hair brown. We perused the rails and choose a couple of outfits to style the fitness models in. Tougher than it sounds – so much nice, multi-purpose workout gear. Loads of citrusy orange and bright blue, some great prints, wicked silver shorts and an orange running jacket that I massively fell in love with. Fabrics are technical of course, using Climalite and Climacool technologies to enable range of movement and breathability.
Alex and I decided to combine our looks so we could get more in. Cunning. And here they are.
Looks by L&L’s Charlotte and Alex of Fashercise
Behind the scenes gossip
As the athletes were getting their hair and make up done and trying to eat their lunch at the same time – time is money people – we also squeezed in a quick chat. Very quick. My highly insightful learnings include:
Jodie always wears blue nail varnish when she’s competing, loves pizza, is really close to her training group and says training with them is like running with friends. She has her mantra, ‘pain is temporary, victory is forever’ tattooed on her wrists.
Laura rarely gets recognised, would go for pudding over a starter every time, is really superstitious and before she races she has to ensure she has clean socks, her lucky bracelet and headband and makes sure she steps on a wet towel (?!). As a cyclist she isn’t allowed to run or do anything else that could compromise her quad strength. She is surprisingly tiny.
Jess was wearing bright studio power tights in bahia coral (a personal favourite of mine) although she prefers to train in dark leggings and a bright top. Before she competes she admits she can get a bit mardy and needs to be alone. She had a hair piece added to her pony tail to get longer locks.
As the styled-up athletes headed to their shoot we headed back to London to dream of new kit and Olympic glory. Here are some of the picks of the new collection. Fit huh?
The adidas workout collection is available at adidas.co.uk/workout
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