Even if you haven’t heard the word athleisure, you’ve surely noticed the droves of women flocking to a mainstay of yoga pants and stylish sneakers as an everyday wardrobe solution that covers workouts, errands, and everything in between.
What Is Athleisure?
It’s pretty simple, actually. Pair comfy leggings or yoga pants with clean, colorful tennies and a tunic or other casual top (over a sports top or bra if desired), and you’ve got athleisure.
What was thought to be a fleeting trend when it began around 2014 actually gained ground throughout 2015 – athletic wear sales continued to rise during this time despite a drop-off in the rest of retail. Clothing companies quickly jumped on board with more versatile pieces incorporating Spandex and Lycra, and the cultural movement further dug in its heels.
Why Athleisure?
This major disruption in everyday home-to-work-to-workout-and-beyond wear makes sense given the cultural shift toward health, fitness, and efficiency which is being spurred on in no small measure by the coming-up Millennial population.
Millennials – and forward-thinking Gen X’ers – want low-maintenance, multi-function clothing that’s easy to put together into a reasonably fashionable look. And manufacturers are, without a doubt, responding to this rising demand.
Is Athleisure Here to Stay?
Former head of J. Crew menswear Todd Snyder predicts that athleisure isn’t just a trend – it’s an “evolution” that will last at least a decade. Snyder also points out that the athleti-casual look has spilled over to the other gender.
With the likes of Elle magazine on the bandwagon, calling athleisure one of the top five styles of 2017, not to mention the fact that the word has its very own spot in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, it looks like the trend is more than, well, a trend.
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