Because I truly am a midlife cliche, I do a lot of pilates. (It’s the best! Isn’t it the best?) And even when I’m mid-plank I’m never completely not thinking about clothes, so I have noticed something that I feel we need to discuss. Here goes: I think leggings might be over.
How can this be? Leggings and fitness have been two sides of the same coin for years. It was the rise of fitness as a fashionable leisure activity that turned leggings into an aspirational piece of clothing. Designer leggings have become a mega bucks business. A fancy pair costs as much as a pair of trousers, and the price tag is somehow justified by the fact that they are worn, in public, just like trousers. Inside the gym or fitness studio, leggings (or cycling shorts on a hot day) have been the only show in town – most likely worn with a sports bra and a tank top.
But lately, I’ve noticed something different. At Frame, a fitness studio close to Guardian HQ that I go to, a new is look emerging. Until recently, every woman in the changing room was wriggling into a second-skin pair of leggings, often with the kind of top that is basically a full-coverage, long-line sports bra. There are still lots of those, but there are now looser silhouettes too: yoga pants and tracksuit bottoms, ballet-style wrap cardigans and tissue-thin off-duty-dancer long-sleeve tops.
It tracks, when you think about it. Fashion has gotten looser in the past few years. Skinny jeans have made way for baggy denim and horseshoe shapes. Snug flat-fronted trousers have been sidelined in favour of trousers with fabric that falls from pleated waistbands. Oversized cotton shirts are having a moment. Tight clothes used to be the default signal that you had made an effort – a fitted shift dress for work, skinny jeans on a weekend – but a more generous silhouette has reclaimed top spot. And what we wear to the gym is now following suit. Once you have adjusted to loose clothes, it starts to feel awkward to wear stuff you have to peel on and off.
I like to hope that this gear shift also reflects a healthier, more holistic attitude to fitness. Perhaps we are starting to realise that exercise is about optimising your mood and your mindset, not just about the shape of your body. When you work out in Lycra, your reflection in the mirror channels your mental focus on to your physical appearance. A decade ago, the fashion-forward fitness look was ultra-feminine and high-maintenance, all tight leggings and matching sets. Now, the momentum is with brands like Vuori, which is rooted in menswear and is therefore about comfortable fabric and ease of movement. (I love the Miles Ankle Pant, £120, a body-skimming jogger – ankle-length on me, even though it looks cropped on the model – which has also become my favourite travel trouser for planes and trains.)
Fitness professionals are ahead of the curve here. We take our lead from how those leading classes look, even if we aren’t conscious of doing so. I have found myself influenced by Cassie Davenport, Frame’s pilates and dance-cardio instructor, who takes class in tracksuit bottoms and a loose T-shirt. “I want my class to be about all the amazing ways movement can make us feel, rather than just a method of changing the way we look. We spend enough time being critical about ourselves and the gym is not the place for that.”
Clothes to exercise in are first and foremost about logistics. If you are thinking about them while you are working out then they aren’t doing their job properly. Leggings with zipped pockets (for keys etc) still work well for running outside. But for indoor workouts, check out the M&S Goodmove High Waisted Hareem Yoga Joggers (£25), which I wear all day long, tucked into ankle boots.
I am evangelical about fitness clothes that you don’t mind being seen in public in, as they make it easier to fit a workout in around whatever else you need to do out in the world. Finding time to exercise is always a squeeze. What you wear doesn’t have to be.
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Model: Bella at Milk. Hair and makeup: Sophie Higginson using Sam McKnight and Dr Sam Bunting. Long sleeve top, £70, and T-shirt, £65, both Vuori.
Tracksuit bottoms, £108, Alo. Trainers are the model’s own
