Health and fitness never looked so good

The recent merging of active wear and ready-to-go-anywhere apparel has redefined functional fashion and is influencing the way we think and act.

By LAURA MOSS

NOWADAYS it’s commonplace for Australian women to fork out hundreds of dollars on clothes to sweat in.

Initially a subset of women’s fitness fashion, the compression-clothing phenomenon began when research revealed the benefits of wearing the garments to accelerate recovery, following rigorous exercise and training.

Today, compression clothing has become less known as a training aid for athletes, and has instead been adopted as fashion garb by lycra-lovers.

It is often thought the clothes we wear are synonymous with the way we feel or how we want to be perceived by others. Personal trainer and founder of Body Positive Health and Fitness Shelley Lask says we should think of it as a “workout costume”.

“Wearing something that you feel really good and sporty in can motivate you to be more active because you feel like you look the part of someone who is fit and healthy,” she says.

However, Ms Lask says the emblematic meaning we associate with a pair of leggings isn’t important and that we should “focus on what we can do, rather than how we look doing it”.

“I think it's more important to feel good than to look good,” she says.

“If we view ourselves from the outside and are overly concerned with our appearance, we can lose the important mind-body connection that gives us feedback about how we're actually feeling mentally and physically.”

Before the rise of social media and microblogging platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest, the words fitness and fashion seldom met in the same sentence. Health and fitness are becoming increasingly fashionable on social media and are playing a part in driving industry growth in Australia.

Melbourne style blogger and creator of See Want Shop, Lisa Hamilton, says social media has helped promote fitness and exercise across all age groups.

“Social media is saturated with 'fitspo' images and figures,” she says.

“For girls that love fashion and love looking good, it only makes sense that this feel would transcend into the fitness world.”

Australian Research Company IBIS World reports that despite difficult retail conditions, the fitness and athletic clothing stores industry has increased by an annual rate of 5.2 per cent in the past five years, reaching over $1.8 billion.

The industry report claims that demand for the industry’s products have been propelled because of changing consumer attitudes towards wearing active wear as street wear.

The global influence of street style has seen major retailers such as Nike and adidas introduce their own lines of designer apparel. As the active wear trend becomes more sophisticated and sought after, mega brands are integrating social media campaigns and celebrity endorsement to boost brand awareness.

Last month, fitness retailer New Balance designed a collection of active wear in collaboration with supermodel Heidi Klum. The HKNB collection boasts a range of apparel that promises to take you from “the studio to the street with runway-inspired styling”.

However, Ms Lask says the glamorisation of a particular “look” can make people feel like they’re not exercising right, and the less “sexy” but more important message of health and fitness isn’t getting enough of the spotlight.

“Social media platforms have helped to brand health and fitness aspirational, in some ways they have hindered peoples attitudes to being healthy and fit by presenting a narrow image of what healthy and fit look like,” she says.

However, Ms Lask admits wearing designer gym clothes can empower and motivate people to become more active in their lifestyle.

“I think more and more people are realising that being physically active is an important part of taking care of ourselves mentally and physically, and people take pride in that,” Ms Lask saysp.

“Wearing nice workout clothes can also make exercising feel like more of a special time, and we are far more likely to continue to exercise if we see it as something we value, rather than an obligation.”