YOGA PANTS AT WORK? IT’S STILL A STRETCH
Activewear companies are now selling business casual attire
Sometimes Amy Mains wears black yoga pants to work. She adds a scarf, accessories, and a shirt long enough to cover her backside.
“Just making sure everything is as crisp as it can be when you’re wearing tights,” she said.
Like many office workers, Mains, 31, wants three things from her workwear: comfort, convenience, and a professional look. Her go-to Lululemons meet two out of three, allowing her to switch from her San Francisco communications job to a studio without need of a gym bag.
“It’s primarily for comfort, but I do a lot of yoga,” she said.
On the style front, though, a few bangles and a long shirt can’t distract from the fact she’s wearing clothing made for sweating, not working. Her yoga pants may be a welcome escape from the restrictive tyranny of shift dresses, but they still aren’t entirely officeappropriate. Mains knows this, reserving the stretch pants for days when she won’t see many other humans.
Companies selling “athleisure” want to change that. The gym and yoga studio don’t suffice for sporty clothing brands these days: They want their stuff worn all day, every day, as with the casual, basic button-ups, tees, and slacks found at Gap and H&M.
Athletic clothes long ago spilled onto the sidewalk as streetwear and can even be acceptable for going out at night. Activewear sales increased 15 per cent last year, thanks in part to such companies as Vancouver-based Lululemon Athletica Inc., Nike Inc., and Athleta Inc.
A shift in workplace fashion spearheaded by brands isn’t unprecedented. In the ’90s, Dockers’ khakis became a business casual uniform staple for men because of a marketing campaign by parent company Levi Strauss & Co.
Levi created A Guide to Casual Businesswear, a pamphlet sent to 25,000 human resources managers that showed a variety of business casual looks that all happened to feature Dockers. The retailer also held seminars, put on fashion shows, and maintained a toll-free number for those who had questions.
While the masses have embraced yoga pants as today’s almost-anywhere pants, the boss still hasn’t.
“Even in casual workplaces, can people wear leggings? Probably not,” said Victoria Gutierrez, a 31-year-old consultant.
Most workplaces barely let employees wear jeans: Only 36 per cent of companies surveyed by SHRM officially allow people to go casual more than one day a week. And even offices that allow casual dress often have bans on leggings.
The weekend dominance of activewear hasn’t been enough to maintain the category’s growth. Sales figures for tights and capris have fallen 6 per cent since the beginning of 2015, according to SportsOneSource, a data research firm. Getting people to roll out their comfy gear for the grim fluorescent lights of work might give sales a much-needed boost. This probably won’t be a hard sell, as a Nielsen survey found 75 per cent of working women change into something more comfortable when they get home.
Shoppers are already opting for all-day items that make sense in the office and out. Ponte pants are a firm, yet stretchy, style with an elasticized waist — an industrial strength version of yoga pants that have become a workplace staple. Owners of Ann Taylor Inc.’s Ponte Pant, which gets hundreds of fivestar reviews online, described them as “perfect for day, play, work, and night.”
Three young clothiers are among those leading the charge into your office. At Carbon38, an online athletic-wear shop that sells such high-end labels as Lisa Marie Fernandez and Lucas Hugh, the workplace is being won with style tips. The company has a guide called, Athleisure at the office. In it, Carbon38 employees pose for photo shoots in their typical workwear, like a snug, all-black neoprene dress and a matching jacket with mesh sleeves.
“Our whole mentality is that activewear is the new ready-to-wear,” said Caroline Gogolak, 30-year-old co-founder and president of Carbon38. “Activewear is definitely work-appropriate.”
Outdoor Voices, an activewear company founded in 2013, shuns the blazing neon hues typical of gym gear in favour of a more muted palette.
In a whimsical post on its website, Outdoor Voices even recommends a variety of stretches that can be done right at your desk, relieving stress while on conference calls or at the water cooler. Perhaps this is what bosses fear most about this trend: Yoga pants in the office may lead to yoga.
Lululemon, ruler of the yoga mat with its $2 billion US in annual revenue, is even poking its head into the workday world. Earlier this year, it started selling experimental activewear for New York commuters at a single store called Lululemon Lab. It plans to feed its best new design aspects back into the main Lululemon lines.
Employees want some version of work-appropriate yoga pants, even if it’s unclear what that looks like.
“I’m looking for things that aren’t going to wrinkle, that are machine washable, and polished enough for my clients,” said Gutierrez, the consultant.
In general, casual dress habits are already spilling over into our work lives.
“We are so used to clothes that stretch, we’re used to wearing sneakers, and a lot of these elements are being integrated into the daily wardrobe,” said Roseanne Morrison, fashion director at trend forecaster Doneger Group.
Perhaps it’ll take small steps to get cube farmers decked out in pliable clothes. Some brands, such as menswear label Ministry of Supply, exist to make dress shirts and blazers that mimic the esthetic of regular clothes but infuse them with all sorts of performance aspects: collars that don’t lose their shape, multi-directional stretch, moisture-wicking fibres. The clothes conform with business casual, even business formal, culture.
“We need to be respectful of the accepted esthetics,” said Aman Advani, 31, co-founder of Ministry of Supply. “People want to make jumps, but they don’t want to take huge leaps.”
I’m looking for things that aren’t going to wrinkle, that are machine washable, and polished enough for my clients