New drops to shop Work it! Sportswear flexes its fashion muscles

AS SPORTSWEAR FLEXES ITS FASHION MUSCLES, LAURA ANTONIA JORDAN EXPLORES THE STYLISH WAY TO TAKE FITNESS GEAR OUT OF THE GYM

NOT SO LO LONG AGO, if you’d turned up anywhere but the gym in Lycra leggings, people would have assumed you’d A) forgotten to pack a post-workout change of clothes, B) run out of clean clothes that morning, or C) given up on fashion altogether. Now, however, all that has changed.

Sportswear ( by which we mean actual sportswear built for actual workouts, rather than sporty-inspired fashion clothes) is flexing its style muscles and gaining traction way beyond the gym. Not sure? Consider how cycling shorts have owned summer 2018. First spotted on the Kims, Kendalls, Bellas and Haileys earlier this year, they have now evolved beyond gimmick to bona fide fash pack fave, seen everywhere at Copenhagen Fashion Week earlier this month. The next inevitable stop? Your local high street.

While cycling shorts require lashings of confidence to pull off, the trend is merely the apex of a shift in how we dress. Reflective of the gradual Californication of our wardrobes, the 24/7 appeal of fitness gear is indicative of the pendulum swing towards comfort and practicality. You need only look at the unstoppable ascent of the fashion trainer over the perilous heel to understand that we now want clothes that work hard, not ones that are hard work.

Sportswear is booming. And this isn’t only resonating with a fitness-obsessed audience, but a style-aware one, too. ‘Our customer is buying more sportswear,’ affirms Elizabeth von der Goltz, the global buying director of Net-a-porter, whose Net-a-sporter category now stocks over 30 brands. ‘And she’s not just buying it to exercise in, she’s wearing it to grab coffee, brunch with friends and do her errands. These head-to-toe sportswear looks can go anywhere, not just the gym.’ Proving that sportswear no longer appeals to only sporty types, Net-a-porter has also bought into brands like Nagnata and Calé, designed for low-impact exercises or après sports.

The duality of the new sportswear is down to the elevation of the design. Whereas once fitness gear was something to tolerate rather than embrace, nowadays the flattering cuts, bold colours and clever

design details mean even the most sedentary of us might be coaxed into Lycra. You can thank the new generation of boutique fitness brands for propelling the design credentials. Look to Ernest Leoty (who make ‘tailored activewear with a Parisian sensibility’), Lucas Hugh, P.E Nation and Vaara, whose coordinating bra and legging sets are doing particularly well at Net-a-porter. ‘Our Enhance category is all about pieces that can elevate your look,’ says Vaara founder Tatiana Korsakova. ‘Sweatshirts with style-forward cuts, tailored pants that could be worn out in the evening, and tops that add a touch of luxury to a typical gym outfit.’ And the mega sportswear giants are also at it. Reebok’s highly anticipated collaboration with Victoria Beckham will land in-store later this year and is sure to be nothing less than seriously chic, while Stella Mccartney’s adidas collection continues to go from strength to strength. Picking up on this shift in mood, earlier this month Nike launched a nine-piece City Ready collection, created by an all-women design team, specifically designed for women to wear day to night, as well as to the gym.

While fashion has co-opted the tropes of sportswear for a few seasons now, it’s important to note that these brands have high-performance credentials to back up the design. ‘For us, function is always at the forefront of all our products,’ says Jane Gottschalk, founder of Perfect Moment sportwear, which offers ski, surf and gym gear. ‘Our activewear is made with highimpact technical fabric that smooths, sculpts and provides an ideal level of compression, together with antibacterial properties and moisture-control.’ Sienna Miller is a fan – she was recently spotted in New York wearing one of the brand’s cropped tees with wide-leg black trousers (far left). ‘ To cut through all the noise you have to first grab people’s emotions through the aesthetics but then absolutely deliver on quality and function,’ says Tatiana.

So how does one successfully integrate fitness gear into their wardrobe? It’s all in the mix and layering is key. Jane wears Perfect Moment’s mesh jackets over a dress in the summer, and says one of her friends, ‘an ex-supermodel, just wore one of our white tracksuits with heels and jewellery. She looked amazing!’ The most ‘fashion’ way is to turbo-charge a look, unsettling it with a sporty element – haute shorts were worn under party dresses at Dundas S/S ’19. Personally, I downplay it, pairing techy trainers with dresses or Lululemon leggings with a cashmere knit, socks and slides ( looks better than it sounds, trust me).

So, with fashion and fitness merging closer together than ever before, could leggings, crop tops and cool-down coverups be the new status buy? Perhaps. Just like It bags and statement shoes, they semaphore a whole aspirational lifestyle. It’s just in this case it’s one which probably involves boot-camps, spinning classes and green juices. But if that’s not the case in reality, well, nobody will ever know.