Flashy fashionable racing suits

Students from Summa Fashion are creating new racing suits for Summa Automotive drivers.

It took a lot of broken needles, but the results are impressive. Four students from Summa Fashion designed and created flashy racing suits. The drivers – students from Summa Automotive – are very pleased with the results. Minor adjustments are still being made here and there, and the sponsors' logos are still being stitched on. One thing is certain: the men will soon be looking fashionable on the track.

The Fashion students made three sets of two suits: one for the driver and one for the front passenger. Sofie Bouwmans worked on them: "I really enjoyed the challenge. This assignment was completely different. None of us had ever done anything like this before, and there was no plan from school. So we really did everything ourselves and learned a lot."

Flame retardant fabrics

Because racing drivers can't just throw on anything, there were some requirements the women had to consider. These included loops on the suits to help pull a driver out of the car in an emergency, and elastic under the feet to keep the trouser legs tucked into the shoes. The designs were discussed and refined, after which computer-generated patterns were created. A cotton prototype followed. The final suits were made of special and expensive flame-retardant fabrics flown in from China. It's a heavy fabric, so quite a few needles were lost. But hey, a few less needles, but being able to tear around in such cool suits is all a plus.