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SUNDAY FASHION EXERCISING OPTIONS THE LATEST IN WORKOUT WEAR

December 17th, 2011 Leave a comment Go to comments

New fabrics and new styling have fueled the industry’s growth, as has the trend of wearing exercise clothing outside the gym. “Because of Donna Karan, you can throw on a unitard underneath a blazer and wear it out to dinner,” said Sue Richter, president of Dance France in Santa Monica, Calif.

Inside the gym, the look has also changed. Once, workout mavens wouldn’t be seen on an exercise bike in anything except basic black, but these days, prints are becoming more popular. For the summer and fall seasons, suppliers introduced patterns with butterflies, jewels, Zulu motifs, tattoos, designs borrowed from Pucci and lots and lots of florals.

“The floral category is explosive,” said Gilda Marx, the doyenne of the industry who runs a chain of exercise studios and has one retail store, in Manhattan. “We do painterly florals, wallpaper florals, antique florals, soft florals and bright florals.” At Allegro Activewear, the flowers tend to be overly large. “People wearing these clothes are constantly looking at themselves in the mirror,” said Judy Russell, the company’s president, “and the print has to be big enough so they can see it clearly.”

Another hot look is “color blocked” leotards, unitards and leggings featuring blocks of solid colors, similar to the patterns found in a Piet Mondrian painting. Crochet inserts are big, along with stretch lace trim. Leotards now come with matching hair ties and headbands. And for those willing to forgo black, the color of the moment is pewter.

New textile technology has led to the development of more versatile fabrics. Aerodynamics recently introduced a fabric called KT-03, with a polyester/spandex sheen on the outside and cotton on the inside. Danskin came out with a nylon and Lycra blend called Suplex. “It has the durability of nylon and it has Lycra to hold you in, but it looks and feels like cotton,” said Joanne diPasquale, a Danskin spokesperson.

As for styling, best-sellers include thong leotards, tank tops layered over bra tops and unitards with square keyhole openings in the back. The newest leggings are short shorts (midway between the length of a bike short and a brief) – called hot pants, usually paired with a bra top or crop top. “You have to have perfect legs to wear it,” said Linda Buckley, a spokesperson for The Weekend Exercise Co.

“Then again,” she continued, “if you’ve been working out hard, you want to see every inch of your body. Or you want everyone else to see every inch of your body!”

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