JENNIE REIMAGINES THE CODES OF ADIDAS ORIGINALS THROUGH “FUNCTIONAL GRACE”
words by RAZ MARTINEZ
For her first co-designed collection with adidas Originals, JENNIE moves beyond ambassadorship and into creative authorship, merging the discipline of ballet with the limitless possibilities of the cosmos.
JENNIE has never existed within a singular creative language. Music, fashion, performance and image-making have long operated as interconnected parts of her world. Now, her relationship with adidas enters its most personal chapter yet. For Fall/Winter 2026, adidas Originals by JENNIE marks the artist’s first collection as co-designer, transforming a years-long partnership with the sportswear house into an exercise in creative authorship.
Titled Functional Grace, the collection begins with ballet, not simply as an aesthetic reference, but as a study in contradiction. Softness exists alongside physical strength. Restraint meets freedom. Precision becomes expression. Through JENNIE’s perspective, these codes collide with the functional language of adidas Originals to create something decidedly more surreal.
“I wanted to reinterpret the classic identity of adidas Originals through my own perspective and energy,” JENNIE explains. “My goal was to bring together the softness and restraint found in ballet, as well as the strength behind it, with the feeling of an endless and unknown space.”
That unknown space becomes literal in Cosmic Ballerina: Kinematics, the visual universe surrounding the collection. Suspended within an expansive cosmic landscape, JENNIE appears almost liberated from gravity. The controlled movements of ballet become otherworldly gestures, transforming the body into a symbol of strength, possibility and freedom. The clothes follow the same tension.
adidas’ familiar track silhouettes are softened and reconstructed alongside wrap skirts, sheer bodysuits, translucent leggings, knit wrap cardigans and layering pieces. High-knit leg warmers and cut-out socks further distort the boundary between dancer and athlete. Throughout, the recognizable language of sportswear remains present, but never untouched.
At the center is the SUPERSTAR SQ BALLET, perhaps the collection’s most direct collision of worlds. The adidas Superstar is elongated through the visual language of a pointe shoe, introducing a squared toe, ribbon detailing, premium leather and a soft lambskin lining. Its removable laces allow the shoe to shift character, somewhere between archival sportswear and an object from JENNIE’s imagined future.
There is something particularly fitting about ballet as the foundation for JENNIE’s first design project. Behind its apparent effortlessness exists rigorous control, repetition and strength. The same duality has defined much of her own public image: polished but never passive, delicate without fragility. With adidas Originals by JENNIE, those contradictions become tangible. This isn’t simply JENNIE wearing adidas. It is JENNIE reconsidering what adidas can look like inside her world.
adidas Originals by JENNIE FW26 launches September 1st at select adidas stores, through the adidas CONFIRMED app, adidas.com/JENNIE and select retailers worldwide.
