By Shawna Healey
Dame Sarah Storey DBE, the most decorated female British Paralympian of all time, has teamed up with students from Manchester Fashion Institute‘s BA (Hons) Fashion Buying and Merchandise course to create an ‘off duty’ leisurewear range for female British cyclists in her Storey Racing venture.
Storey Racing launched in 2017, and provides racing opportunities and mentoring to young women, regardless of age, performance level or activity level.
Dame Storey chose to partner with students from Manchester Fashion Institute (MFI) to provide the opportunity for students to work on a live project which they could then put on their CVs to help them stand out from the crowd when it comes to applying for graduate jobs.
Dame Storey is also a Manchester native and trains in MMU’s Crewe facility, which makes the collaboration a perfect match.
The MMU students involved in the project, Molly Neaery, Kirsten Pittaway, Jemima Kay, Sophie Rundell and Rebecca Franks, will be supplying Storey racing with garments suited to a range of requirements.
The group of student’s didn’t have much time to complete this extra-curricula project – taking over from last year’s students in October, they had under six months to complete the collection.
The women paired with Under Armour, an American sports and leisure merchandise and apparel company with headquarters in London, to produce the garments.
They had to undertake many tasks, including quality control, liaising with Under Armour and communicating with Dame Storey.
The range includes, long and short sleeve tops, jumpers, shorts, tracksuit bottoms and a coat, so the girls involved in Storey Racing have clothes suited for all weather off the track.
There is still significant inequality between men and women in sport, but particularly within cycling, which is one of the reasons Dame Storey has commissioned the collection. There is a lack of funding for young women in the sport, so creating a collection specifically for them not only gives them something to wear, but gives them a confidence boost, as they will be representing not only themselves, but Storey as well.
Dame Storey created the hashtag #BestVersionofYou to inspire people to be the best versions of themselves, and promote a healthy mindset.
Whilst the range isn’t available to the public yet, the women have their eyes set on the future, with plans to get the range into stores for people who want to support the Storey Racing girls, or just want some quality leisurewear!
Featured image: Mexican Pets, Nobody’s Working Title – Blunt Records Pinning down a genre as sprawling as indie-rock is as futile as painting your living room with gravy instead of emulsion. However, we can at least set some boundaries. We can drill down through layers of subgenres and microgenres, but ultimately, a broad definition of…
Punk Rock Factory have gained a growing following over the years for their punky covers of well-known Disney songs. The lovingly named ‘Sausage Army’ turn up en-masse, clad in Motörhead and Ramones merch for a night of silly, classic rock and roll. Bringing the pop back to the punk, Bronnie brings the warm-up stretches in…
Featured image: Jackie Lee Young / Shorefire Media Houston trio, Khruangbin, headed to the Apollo on Monday to play a double set, starting with running through their latest, more stripped-back album A La Sala in full. From the first hum of Mark Speer’s guitar, the swarming audience prepared to be baptised with a night of…
Featured image: Sonic PR Ahead of their three-night residency at the Apollo in December, music journalist Leah Small takes a look at the evolution of IDLES across their five studio albums. With fists raised and a rambunctious energy like no other, self-proclaimed ‘angry’ ensemble IDLES burst forth from Bristol in 2009, possessing a raw and…
Leave a reply