Priyanka Chopra visits a Ferrari garage in a Y/Project trompe l’oeil maxi dress; Lupita Nyong’o wears a checkered-flag Longchamp alongside Red Bull driver Checo Pérez; Marine Serre reinterprets a race suit dress with an armored bustier and bustle; and, not to mention, Chanel’s race-track-inspired Cruise 2023 collection includes the Chanel No. 5 helmet.
Lewis Hamilton said: ” [once] There was a feeling that high fashion and high performance couldn’t coexist, but it’s clear that fashion’s motorsport moment is now heating up, from the grid walk to the catwalk to celebrity street style.
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Chanel’s race track-inspired cruise collection
Of course, trends come and go, but this sports crossover isn’t just a runway reference. F1 and the fashion industry have suddenly found themselves with a mutually beneficial interest. According to a report by brand-building agency Karla Otto and insight specialist Lefty, F1 is the second-fastest-growing sport contributing to earned media value (EMV) for fashion brands, surging 35% by 2023. In other words, marketing budgets spent within the F1 ecosystem are currently delivering a huge return on investment. Several columns have already been devoted to uncovering why. Most of it boils down to the formula: TikTok + Netflix + Hamilton = a global marketing goldmine. And they’re not wrong.
“Finally, women are being seen everywhere in the F1 industry”
F1’s reality TV show “Drive To Survive” attracts over 7 million viewers, and thanks to (F1’s owner) Liberty Media’s recent social media strategy (which includes encouraging drivers to have a bigger presence on all platforms), popular style-conscious drivers like Hamilton now have 40 million personal followers. It’s no wonder brands are keen for this exposure. But the phenomenon is worth looking at more closely, because the celebrityisation of racing drivers, while influential, isn’t necessarily the driving force behind (pun intended) a new relationship with fashion. The real reason luxury brands are flocking to the track is… women.
One of the biggest changes in F1 over the past five years has been the interest and participation of women. From the emergence of inspiring commentators like Naomi Schiff on Sky Sports, to the promotion of women like Hannah Schmitz to chief strategy engineer, to young women racing in the feeder series F1 Academy, women are finally being seen all over the F1 industry.
“I always say: if you can see it, you can be it,” says F1 Academy managing director Susie Wolff. “Finally, women are seeing representation in a traditionally male-dominated sport.” This presence on and off the track also speaks to female involvement more broadly. “Female fans now make up 40% of F1’s fanbase,” Wolff continues. “Not only are women engaging with F1 as fans, they’re building a strong community within F1, which is now attracting a range of new brands, including from the fashion and beauty industries.”
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Lewis Hamilton wearing Louis Vuitton
Pascal Le Segretin
Louis Vuitton patchwork leather jacket
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F1 has always been synonymous with luxury. It’s a sport for the wealthy, with six-figure entry fees for aspiring athletes. Its most famous races take place in Monaco, a magnet for yacht owners and tax haven billionaires. Luxury brands like Rolex, Moet & Chandon and Louis Vuitton have had ties to F1 for a long time. But the target demographic of these sponsorship partners has historically been wealthy and male.
Since then, the customer mix has changed dramatically. Vuitton’s F1 storyline is beautiful evidence of this. The brand started by making a travel trunk for the Monaco trophy, paying tribute to the race’s heritage and tradition. Fast forward a few years and Vuitton has dressed Hamilton in cutting-edge funnel-neck nylon from Pharrell’s SS24 collection, welcomed driver Pierre Gasly to the Cannes Film Festival and sent psychedelic patchwork leather racing jackets down the runway. By stepping up to the occasion and attracting the sport’s younger audience and burgeoning female fanbase, Vuitton has become the fashion industry’s biggest beneficiary of F1’s cultural impact, reportedly raking in more than $6 million in EMV.
“Female fans now make up 40% of F1’s fan base.”
Sensing the importance of the gender shift, some F1 teams have shifted focus sooner than others. Tommy Hilfiger has had a long-standing involvement in F1 with sponsorship dating back to the ’90s, but Mercedes-AMG made the smart move of tapping into Hilfiger, one of the most popular luxury brands for women around the world, to attract female attention. Together, the two companies have produced a series of high-fashion collections for men and women, including a capsule collaboration with streetwear brand Awake NY. “We’re pleased to see the growing interest and involvement of women in F1,” Hilfiger said. “It adds a new and radical dimension to motorsport, and the engagement we’re seeing across our social channels proves that consumers are interested, invested and captivated.”
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Actress Chloe Grace Moretz poses from the grid at the Formula One Academy Series in Austin, Texas
In the second year of its fashion partnership with McLaren and Wraith, the retailer has decided to slim down its production of purely replica team kits, making way for an all-new “Hype” collection of directional streetwear, leather varsity jackets and silk two-piece sets. Most of Hype is billed as unisex, but some are purely for women. “McLaren has experienced a huge increase in female fans over the last few years,” explains Wraith menswear director Alex Field. “We saw female fans customising and trimming their official merchandise to express their fashion stance, so we created Hype as a response. It’s our best-selling and most popular collection with female fans.”
Ferrari will launch its own women’s ready-to-wear fashion line in 2021 and recently negotiated to show at Milan Fashion Week. “F1 is the new red carpet. Rihanna, Adam Driver, Naomi Campbell and many others have requested access to the Ferrari paddock, and we recently dressed Alicia Keys in a custom Ferrari suit,” says Ferrari’s style creative director Rocco Iannone. Even Aston Martin has made the transition from Hackett to Boss, moving from a brand that only targeted men to one that also does women’s clothing. The lesson here is that the merchandise market is much stronger among women, and women have a stronger “emotional” relationship to purchases. Brands that recognize the desire of female fans to show their affiliation to their team, while also providing style, are reaping the rewards.
Nowhere is this opportunity more attractive than in the United States, where interest in women’s sports viewing has exploded. For example, female viewership of the Super Bowl has reached a record high of approximately 60 million. In response, the United States has dramatically increased its participation in F1, with the Miami Grand Prix being the biggest recent success story. The Miami Grand Prix will launch in 2022 and currently boasts viewership of over 1.2 million.
What makes the Miami and Las Vegas races particularly lucrative for brands is not only the large numbers of female fans and celebrities who attend (Michelle Obama attends the Miami race weekend), but also the emphasis on luxury consumption. Global demand for luxury goods is in flux, and sales are increasingly subject to the whims of the ultra-rich. Base ticket packages for the Miami Grand Prix range from $700 to $10,000, and the packed grandstands are clearly affluent.
Courtesy of Ferrari
Georgia May Jagger in Ferrari
Besides the fact that women dominate the luxury goods and merchandise market, female fans are naturally taking an interest in a sport that is finally starting to root for women. According to the Inside Track report from female motorsport initiative More Than Equal, 56% of female fans are more likely to buy from a brand that sponsors women. This means brands like Tommy Hilfiger, Charlotte Tilbury and Puma, who are vocal and proud supporters of the female racers in the F1 Academy, are making a smart decision for ROI.
“[Female fans] “We feel the world of sports is lacking in diversity in both look and feel,” says More Than Equal CEO Ali Donnelly. “There’s a huge opportunity for brands that are willing to invest in women.” “We believe it’s our responsibility to use our platform to create change,” Hilfiger adds. “Our partnership is driven by a strong recognition of the lack of diversity in women’s sports.” [with F1 Academy] This is a big step towards equal access to F1 and we believe the intersection of fashion and motorsport is here to stay.”
Jason Vian
Spanish driver Nerea Marti and F1 Academy Managing Director Susie Wolff wear Tommy Hilfiger
In their battle for relevance, F1 and the fashion industry have found a powerful ally in female fans. The success of this union is driven by women who bring both passion and purchasing power. And this alliance isn’t just about aesthetics, it’s about influence: women spending with purpose, and turning their economic power into a catalyst for change.
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