Tashi pairs her Loewe cotton shirtdress with Chanel espadrilles when she’s older, and wears Cartier jewelry exclusively (despite her real-life Bulgari ambassadorship). She applies Augustinus Bader cream on her body and wears lots of camel cashmere. This is Tashi attempting to exert her dominance over everyone else: She is a better tennis player, she is wealthier, she is more mature, and she would like you to know it. When she is young, she’s in Adidas campaigns, which our culture has come to know as a signifier for the sports prodigy, the role model. She grows up to play the role of a coach after a career-ending injury. She officially coaches her husband, Art (Faist), and has been romantically, platonically, and erotically coaching both Art and Patrick since they first met.
What each man wants from her is different, however, and it’s easy to see that by their clothes. Art is a good boy and wants to be told so. He listens to Tashi and does what she wants. He wears good boy clothes: crisp white Uniqlo polo shirts on the court and navy quarter zips off-duty. Patrick, however, is sleazy, and what he wants from Tashi is both a challenger and someone who will put him in his place. He evokes a Peter Pan “I’ll never grow up” energy in mismatched athleisure, and drives a rundown car despite coming from money.
These clothes, normal as they are, are charged with sexual tension, as is the rest of the movie. Guadagnino’s camera erotically caresses the bodies of his stars, highlighting their muscles, absorbing every drop of sweat. Tashi goes braless in her cashmere sweaters, and Art finds a fresh polo to change into and cling on to his sweaty body in between each set. As for Patrick, in his tiny athletic shorts and the workout clothes he’s always in, you can tell he… smells—as is also pointed out by a beguiled gay couple at a hotel lobby—in the kind of musky way some people are very much into, contrary to what many would like to believe. Art and Patrick wear worn-in cotton boxers as teenagers, which the former upgrades to classic briefs as a grown man (and like a grown man). Challengers is Anderson’s love letter to normal clothes, and I for one will never look at a pair of workout shorts the same way ever again.