Sportswear isn’t always that sexy, but a collaboration between Swiss technical sportswear brand Odlo and Zaha Hadid Design has left us breathless. The design team has created a set of engineered base layer tops and leggings that feature Odlo’s signature innovations, including organic body mapping and seamless knitting. The two sets (one for men, one for women) feature an elastic seamless knitted texture that controls the flow of air and adapts to breathing and movement. Thanks to organic body mapping, the pieces act as a second skin, with no seams limiting flow and flexibility.

‘Initially, this collaboration might be hard to appreciate,’ says Timo Pape, Odlo’s Brand director. ‘If you look deeper at the values of both ODLO and Zaha Hadid Design, it becomes absolutely clear: Zaha Hadid Design’s philosophy around fluidity, aesthetics and design, is truly complementary to ODLO’s ethos of being the “Engineers of Active Layers since 1946.” Together, with our different lenses, we assessed how the body works and what it needs to perform, culminating in a completely new way to look at Body Mapping. We have completely changed the way our next to skin product is made and will be made, moving forward.’

The collection took shape in much the same way as most of the London practice’s projects come to life, with a combination of visual ideas and vigorous research. Sporting underwear has never been so fit. §