In 1980, Norma Kamali was one of the first designers to propel casual sportswear into fashion. Her “Sweats” collection was featured on the front page of WWD in November 1980, earned her a Coty Award for design innovation in 1981 and since then, athleisure has become a mainstay in many Americans’ wardrobes.
Although the designer has peppered her urban sweats into collections over the last decade, Kamali said spring 2026 was the first time she’s “knocked off” her original one, including its little running panties, cute puff shorts and drop pants. Except here, the fabrication has been updated from sweat shirting to terry, shoulder pads were replaced by molding to shape sweatshirts, dresses and jackets, and a few new contemporary styles like bodysuits and flat-front men’s pants were added in.
WWD Cover, November 1980
Fairchild Archive
“Everything is very clean, which is why that collection was so good. It came after Studio 54 when I was doing so many cuckoo bird crazy things,” she said. “Now, it’s all really simple, and pieces that you can mix up with everything. It’s so clean, and it was so clean then; the timing of it feels right now, too.”
The assortment was layered throughout Kamali’s larger, simple but covetable spring collection, which featured easy shawls layered over a variety of signature Pickleball and Diana dresses featuring new playful long bows; habotai shirt dressing; practical yet elevated mix-and-match sets; kaftan cover-ups, and new takes on bestselling occasion dresses. In addition to a great new grouping of bubbly twist dresses, tops and skirts (adorable in baby pink), Kamali also expanded her ongoing Wardrobe collection of versatile, easy tailoring.
Norma Kamali, summer 1980 ready-to-wear advance preview
Dustin Pittman/ Fairchild Archive
But the designer’s biggest news of the season stemmed from the debut of her Lifestyle collection of simple base layers (think T-shirts, tank tops, pedal pushers, etc.) that will be priced for under $200 and available each season in new colorways. Akin to her pioneering ‘80s sportif lineup, the affordable capsule proves Kamali is always looking forward and knows just what her customer needs.
