Ellesse clothing was founded by Italian Leonardo Servadio in 1959. He created ski wear in the 1970s which increased the popularity of the Ellesse brand – designing quilted jacket and ski pants and the famous Ellesse jet pant which had padding throughout and extra padding on the knees. A special feature was the width of the bottom legs they were extra wide so you could fit these pants over the top of your ski boots. Tennis wear was also a huge part of the Ellesse label and from Leonardo’s love of tennis and skiing inspired him to created the logo we see on every garment today, if you look closely at the logo you will see that it was derived from two tips of a pair of skis which are situated either side and in the middle is the shape a tennis ball – an imaginative design and you will not find another logo like it! Ellesse has teamed up with many designers collaborating their sportswear with haute couture fashion designer Jean-Charles de Castlebjaac to Scandinavian company Wood Wood working to designer trendy streetwear styles. The 80s was a great time for Ellesse, the clothing label was one of the chosen brands for young men in the UK there was not a pub,club or football match without someone wearing an Ellesse tracksuit or polo, this brand was known as a premium sportwear brand and became a huge part of the British terrace casual culture scene now known today as 80’s casuals retro wear which has made a huge comeback over the last couple of years, Ellesse are stocking their Heritage range in most fashion and designer stores online and on the high street. This brand was also a huge hit with professional sports men and women & celebrities from Chris Evert, Boris Becker, Anna Kournikova, Muhammad Ali, Roger Moore and Brigitte Nielsen. Ellesse is known all over the world and has become a house hold name, Ellesse was a must have brand in the 80’s and still to this day anyone who is into their casual fashion clothing buys Ellesse. They have designed what was initially a sportswear label in to a designer & fashion label taking influence from their 80’s success they go on to designer stylish and fashionable clothing but keeping their prices low this brand has it all and after celebrating their 50th anniversey in 2009 it looks as though this brand is going to be around for many years to come.
