This is Past and Present - the ultimate challenge
to see how fashion has helped sport move forward to this day.
We travel all around the globe to challenge six athletes
and six designers to make an old garment
and test it under today's conditions.
Let's see what happens when past and present collide.
(PAST AND PRESENT - HOCKEY)
(BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA)
Meet Giselle Kanevsky.
She is a former hockey player
of the national Argentinian team,
known as "Las Leonas".
Bronze medallist in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
Retired in 2011, since then, she has dedicated her life
to fashion and design.
That's why we challenged her to recreate the old garment
used in the beginning of hockey.
In the beginning of the 20th century,
sports for women was a social thing,
and hockey was an opportunity to show that a woman
belonged to a certain social class.
The garments used by that time
were the same as those used for meetings or cocktails,
obviously subject to the restrictions of that time.
Let's see the amazing transformation
of hockey's uniform along these last 100 years.
(THE CHALLENGE)
The challenge is to recreate that uniform
and for a current player to use it,
and show and comment on the differences.
I proposed recreating the hockey of the 1900s.
Must have been hard to move, right?
We can clearly see the length of the skirt.
And the baby collar.
We shared with her the proposal she brought along,
and the fabrics she chose.
Each time I touched a fabric, I could imagine myself
playing with that skirt on and saying, "I can't play".
I would suffocate before even starting.
This one's really good.
- It's heavier. - It is heavier.
I chose the heaviest one so she suffers a bit more.
But really, it's a very rigid spandex.
I think that my main focus was in the garment's details.
The design, the quality,
and the elegance that garment requires.
Giselle will need an athlete to test her recreation
of the 1908 hockey garment -
fortunately, she has a very special friend
that would like to help her -
the three-time Olympian, Carla Rebecchi.
It's surprising to see them playing hockey like that.
We're so used to such a different kind of thing.
So comfortable and with high mobility.
And then you see them in those clothes
better suited for parties.
Carla was considered the best player in the World
for several years.
She won a bronze medal in Beijing 2008
and a silver in London 2012.
But still, she is thrilled about this new challenge.
Playing hockey as if in the past century.
I'll check how they managed to play at the time
with those clothes.
(DAY #1)
Well, this would be what I'm looking for.
To really keep that collar, those shoulders...
This protruding fluff here.
Well, Giselle chose what she wanted
and began working with the model-maker
on top of her body, taking the first measures.
After that we'll see what's next,
since sometimes we have to go back a few steps
to reach the final, ideal product.
This fluff is too high.
I want this detail to stick out a lot.
She works the costume test in detail,
minding the arm holes, the drape,
the length over the person, to feel how you want
that garment to look like.
And the end result is very good.
(DAY #2)
We have to pass everything on to the model-maker
along with the data gathered.
Then we load them to a clothing pattern, a drawing,
to be able to make the patterns.
We use cheviot fabrics, poplin fabric, 100% cotton,
all good quality.
We make the prototype,
the prototype is then cut and sewn up, it is finished,
then we do a costume test,
and surely then we'll have to modify some things.
Take other measures, make it shorter or wider.
I'd make it longer and pull this up a bit.
Give it a bit more volume.
And the neck has to be round.
We do a second test
to achieve the quality we always strive for.
(DAY #3)
I'm here today for the second test.
The last one, we hope.
And if everything goes well, we can see how it looks
with the finishing touches we discussed the last time.
The first time we changed the roll neck for a round neck.
We added a lot of volume to the sleeves' puff.
And we have longer cuffs, and the skirt's drape
we also corrected - looks good now.
I'm really happy.
At first I was scared to start, because
I didn't know if I'd be able to do it.
But seeing it now,
I feel that we're almost done.
It's awesome. I didn't think they could create
something this similar, almost identical
to what they used back then.
We were astonished when we saw her.
We laughed, it was hilarious.
I don't think they sweated much.
Not if they kept looking this neat after the match.
Imagine trying to play a sport with these clothes.
It's crazy.
- Now off to the court. - Let's test it.
Let's see how it goes.
In a grass field, right?
Giselle has done an incredible job
with the clothing.
She has been doing research
and finally resolved the challenge
to make the unwearable outfit.
I look on point for a party, but when it comes to hockey...
not so much.
Let's see what happens when past and present collide.
(TEST #1)
This is our first test.
The short corner.
The idea is to recreate a situation she resolves
all the time in the court,
which stands out and makes her the best player in the world.
For this, we are going to recreate
a spectacular moment from the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
We were just talking about this goal she scored
back in Rio, against India, and we'll recreate that move,
to see how much she's constricted.
This is going to be fun.
When I run, I can't move.
I can't stretch, I can't get down,
and this sweeping gesture is mostly about stretching,
making a long step at the end.
And that's the hardest part. I can't do it.
I can't do the last step properly long.
Now we ask Carla to repeat the test
with the current Leonas uniform.
It's so different. Now it's like flying.
It's amazing how thin the fabric is.
- Very. - It's like...nothing.
Like wearing nothing.
That long step allows you to move the ball
for a longer time, which gives you the strength
and the power for the shot.
(TEST #2)
And now it's time for test number 2.
I think this should be easier than sweeping.
This is a usual play for Carla in any game.
She dribbles past a lot of opponents
and then shoots at full speed,
and always smashes it right on the corner.
Although she did it quite well,
this is not her full speed and power, like in a match.
Now we see Carla doing the dribbling and shooting exercise
with the current Leonas uniform.
It's so different.
Especially for the dribbling.
I was feeling stuck by the skirt.
Now I felt so comfortable, even shooting,
since I could stretch to hit the ball.
Back then I was dragging, now I'm flying.
We're just enjoying the quality of her game. It's tremendous.
Well, this is curious.
Again, again.
With the modern outfit,
Carla seems less precise in front of the goal.
It's hard to miss going slow, but at full speed,
you will obviously make some mistakes.
OK, OK, this is science. It's not personal.
(TEST #3)
And now it's time for our third and final exercise.
Now we'll do a key exercise for Carla, which is for speed.
In this test, the athlete has to make a short run
from A to B a repeated number of times,
to test the velocity of the apparel.
The speed I can reach in this outfit
and the one I get to with my normal clothes,
like those in Rio, will be entirely different, for sure.
Let's go to a split-screen to see the differences
between past and present.
We can see that with the old garment,
Carla loses speed,
her primary attribute in the field.
So, Carla,
what do you think about the outfit?
It's pretty tough.
The clothes, the shoes...my feet hurt.
- Yeah... - Stopping and sprinting...
I can't play a whole match in these clothes.
So you quit.
Honestly, I can't understand how they managed to play.
It really is quite cumbersome.
The clothes are so heavy and stuffy.
Yeah, the weight.
Probably the worst enemy of any sport.
This time, we have more than a kilogram.
That's ridiculous.
Even for the best player in the world.
But I think it was great to be able to test
and wear these clothes to compare them
and realise that nowadays we really are privileged
by playing with our uniforms.
Thanks for asking me to do this.
It really was amazing. I enjoyed it so much.
We had a blast, it was so much fun.
So yeah, I'm happy.
Well, that's it for today.
Thanks, Giselle and Carla.
You were both magnificent. "Adios, amigas".
From its beginnings, the field hockey's outfit
has taken the path of functionality.
The changes in the sport have been so massive,
not only in the length of the skirts
and the fabrics, but also the surface of the fields
and the sticks.
The great teams have been able to demonstrate character
through their clothes, which at the same time
are the most efficient version for the game.
A truly great achievement.
(PAST AND PRESENT)
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