Aries X Fila Capsule Collection 2024

And yet for anyone who grew up in Italy during the 70s and 80s, it is tennis that really captures its fascination: the elegance and the elan, the sleekness and the class. It is certainly so for Sofia Prantera, the mastermind behind Aries.

Aries is a non gendered luxury streetwear brand with an artisanal and artistic approach to design and production. The spirit reflects Prantera’s Italian roots, her Central Saint Martin’s training and fascination with garment dyeing, printing and a forensic approach to garment construction.

Aries has already teamed up with FILA in the past, but this is the first time the dialogue between the two entities revives a specific FILA moment culling shapes directly from the archive with the idea to highlight a sense of Italian-ness. Imbued with a palette of soft pastels - pinks and greens, made even softer and faded through garment dyeing - the collection features zip-up jackets, jumpers, long sleeved tshirts, trousers, but also tube socks, caps, and the occasional miniskirt made with elasticated bands, inspired by the tape wrapping the handle of tennis rackets.

Everything is washed out, projecting a sweet vintage feel, which is highlighted in the accompanying campaign, featuring musical duo and siblings Sons of Raphael, who recently scored Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla.

The echo of long gone elegance on the playing field is conveyed in a way that is a tad nostalgic, and yet resolutely attuned with the audience of today. FILA x Aries aligns in fact the idea of rediscovering the roots with the urge of being in sync with the times, in this case with a global, raising interest in sports in which style is just as important as performance, such as paddle. It is an exercise in both image and garment making, in particular tubular knitwear construction.

The way things are made, thus perform, after all, is essential for FILA, and the reason for its authenticity.