Move pretty and in style
Olympic triathlete, Mari Rabie says clothes can inspire you to get up and exercise, writes
SOUTH African triathlete Mari Rabie spends up to 35 hours a week training to compete against the world’s top athletes. With so much time spent ensuring she is in top form, physically and mentally, wearing the right kind of training gear is essential and it has to be functional and comfortable.
Athleisure, clothing that takes you from the gym to the office, is a hot trend right now as more people lead active, busy lives, but still want to look effortlessly stylish. Not many brands at home offer this, so Rabie created her own athleisure range, MOVEPRETTY.
The two-time Olympian, who recently competed at the Rio Olympics where she finished 11th in the women’s triathlon, talks to us about the brand she founded with business partner Annelize Kotzé and about her Rio experience.
MOVEPRETTY was born out of my MBA Retailing Project while at Oxford.
I have a really good business partner that “runs” the business while I am away travelling the world. Kotzé is the CEO. She is the absolute driving force and I am more involved in helping to identify the general direction and helping with big decisions. I have only been home three months this whole year, so a lot of communication and decisions are made over e-mail, WhatsApp and Skype.
The two of us have good complementary skills and it seems to work well. We have also been close friends since we were 13, so we understand each other well and know how best to work together.
It wasn’t a conscious decision… it just happened. But so far it’s been a great learning experience and super special to start something with a friend and see it grow.
Kotzé: We believe in designing functional garments that are so beautiful they inspire you to get out there and move. Attention to detail is of high importance to ensure the lady who wears our “prettymoves”, feels beautiful and therefore looks beautiful with confidence. We love bright colours and funky prints but also EXPERIENCE: Mari Rabie understands sports clothes. understand the key to a great wardrobe is mixing and matching with neutral tones. So we believe we offer a good mix to suit all ladies.
Our customers are a mix of different age groups and from different areas. Our predominant markets are female athletes that train a lot and want fresh and unique options to wear, as well as women aged 20-40 either driving their careers, family or multi-tasking their way through a hectic lifestyle. The fact our clothing is multifunctional and can be dressed up or down, helps with transitioning between the different roles in their lives and makes packing and all-over outfit planning easier… one less thing to worry about.
We believe all women are beautiful and given that extra boost to believe in themselves they can do great things with confidence – and MOVEPRETTY.
Momentous. I am very fond of Rio itself. I really like developing countries and Rio has this vibrant atmosphere, the city has a great rhythm. I trained under a very tough “dictator-like” Australian coach this year, so my days in Rio leading up to the race were planned out to the minute even before we arrived. We raced on the second last day of the games and only flew in from our training base in Morzine in the French Alps five days before the race.
My parents were there, as well as my sister and Kotzé. I was so calm and ready. I saw my dad the morning of the race briefly through the security gates as we entered the venue. He was visibly nervous. I smiled at him and said “Dad, it’ll be ok. Don’t worry, all the hard work is done now”.
The race itself was tremendous… I had a good swim, great transitions and a strong bike and solid run.
Eleventh was a great result, so close to the top 10, but everyone of the girls that beat me (bar one) has been ranked in the Top 3 in the world at some stage of their career and have raced continually for the last 8-10 years while I have gone off to pursue degrees, work part-time and struggled with chronic heart disease.
At the beginning of this year I didn’t even have an Olympic slot and I had to race 7 races in 10 weeks all over the world to scramble to qualify.
Via our online shop, our agents and stockists. All available on www.movepretty.com. Watch out for our brand new summer range which will launch online via our website at the end of the month. Think ice cream, watermelons, icy pinks – and some very exciting new releases.
Follow the brand on: facebook/ movepretty Instagram: @movepretty Twitter: @movepretty