Fitness fashion gets feminine
Wellness guru Taryn Toomey hopes her new collection for Lululemon helps empowers women
Clothes can be powerful — especially when it comes to the workout variety.
A great pair of leggings can make you feel more sleek, while a well-fitting sports bra can make you feel, well, supported.
But Taryn Toomey is hoping her new collection with Lululemon does even more than that: she hopes it empowers.
“We wanted to create a collection with a light and ethereal feel that not only connects the body and mind, but also allows you to move freely and without distractions or feedback from your clothes during practice,” she explains of the release.
The line — aptly dubbed the Lululemon x The Class by Taryn Toomey collection — features staples fans of the Vancouver-based brand have come to rely on, such as leggings and tank tops, with a few Toomeyspecific items such as a Meditation Cloak ($118) and Heart Opener Knit Wrap ($88) that represents the fitness phenom’s chic, layered style.
“The collection blends Lululemon’s expertise in technical design with my personal esthetic and elements and themes from The Class,” she said about the release. “From the soft hues to calm the feeling on the eyes, and wide necklines or low backs to create a sense of opening.”
But perhaps the most notable element of the limited-edition collection is the fact the handful of items are all in (gasp!) light colours such as soft white, lavender-grey and pretty pink. Meaning, it’s a big departure from the typical black and similar dark hues — or, alternately, bright neons — that we’re used to seeing on offer from workout wear.
Basically, the Lululemon x The Class by Taryn Toomey collection serves up the colour palette of pieces Toomey’s The Class participants in Los Angeles and New York — not to mention her more than 45,000 Instagram followers at @theclassbytt — have been repeatedly asking for.
One quick scroll through Toomey’s curated social media feed proves she has an enviable — and elegant — style that transcends the typical realm of fitness wear.
“I love to balance my dressing — fitted on the bottom and drape-y on the top or vice versa,” Toomey explains of her coveted workout style. “I love to feel comfortable but elegant with a touch of bohemian.”
In addition to a soft (and slightly unexpected) colour palette for the workout-wear collection, Toomey and the Lululemon team worked to perfect the fit of the pieces, aiming to create garments that would work for the wearer — from an esthetic and a motivational perspective.
“I know I just feel better when I like what I am wearing,” she says of the importance of a proper fit. “Knowing your body is important — don’t wear something that pulls and tugs on parts of you that you don’t love to highlight. Let it feel good and then you feel good.”
When asked about her favourite pieces from the collection, Toomey pointed to the Heart Opener Knit.
Wrap, a soft knit topper that features a crossover-front design, and the Awakening Tank ($52), a lightweight layering piece with a wideopen back, as two pieces she’s partial to. But it’s the Awakening Crop that she anticipates being the biggest hit with her The Class fans.
“They hold and support you without creating seams or ‘digging in,’ ” she says of the cropped-length leggings.
Flexibility and movement is, after all, a central theme in her cult-following fitness classes.
Toomey, who is based in New York City, is the creator of the celebrity favourite workout, The Class, which incorporates repetitive callisthenics (gymnastic-type movements) with plyometrics (repeated stretching and contracting of muscles).
The motto of the program, according to the website taryntoomey.com, is to create a “cathartic movement experience” that engages the body to “free your heart and find your strength.” So, what exactly does that mean?
“Freeing your heart is simply referring to allowing yourself to feel. Whatever that is,” Toomey says. “I like to pull away from the idea that there are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ emotions — and just feel them.
“In this space, one can embody strength — physically, mentally and emotionally.”
The Lululemon x The Class by Taryn Toomey Collection is available in stores and online at shop.lululemon.com and retails for $18-$118.