So I read this week in Grazia magazine about Athleisure. Columnist Polly Vernon was talking about the current trend for “not getting dressed” involving a lot of lycra and basically wearing your gym gear out in public. A cross over of sportswear normally confined to the gym, mixing with your every day life.
How to do Athleisure with seamless leggings
This isn’t a new phenomena, when I was in New Zealand last year, the Sunday morning wardrobe of the stylish and fabulous revolved around their fitness wardrobe. In fact, a beautician I met told me she buys specific trainers to wear for the weekend and predominantly on Sunday morning, specific for casual times rather than to the gym.
So Athleisure is a thing but I’m not convinced it’s for me. Well that was until Ilu Fitwear sent me a pair of their Magical Seamless Leggings for me to road test. Intended very much for the functional fitness but they were so comfortable I found myself wearing them around the house, on a quick dash to the shops and predominately for the entire Sunday when I can be found in my home office writing blog posts and features for the week ahead. I have been converted by the softness, the lusciousness the all together comfortableness (is that even a word!) of the Magical Seamless Leggings.
However, I don’t think I will venture far in them, as despite their awesome funky pattern, they do have a mess line running through them that I just think makes them look too sporty for a casual weekend look and I feel like I’m flashing a bit too much flesh if I was to wear them into town.
Now I’m not one to normally wear leggings apart from in the gym or in my home fitness area i.e the lounge! But these leggings fit like a glove, they make sure everything stays in the right place and there are no lumps and bumps.. So they are pretty awesome.
I road tested them through an intense Kettle Bell dvd session with the New Look Sport top I tested out previously, together I think they look pretty good.
I also made sure I put them through their paces as I forced myself to do some stretching and most importantly a bit of foam roller on the IT band. Ow Ow Ow, but didn’t I look stylish whilst in so much pain!
I have to admit that they are a little long for my short ass legs but you can just pull them down at the bottom, where they have some ruching anyway so they look perfectly fine.
They are so comfortable and the fact that there is a great waistband that doesn’t fold over when I’m stretching or moving, unlike other leggings I have tried, is a good result. The high ribbed waist “irons out your tummy, you fold it down to suit you” as Ilu Fitwear say. I’m pretty happy with that. The pattern is a subtle, pale grey and just rather funky. I think they would be awesome for yoga or pilates. You won’t get me heading out too far in them but for lounging around the house and ultimately forcing myself to chill out, they hit the spot and do the job!
You can check out my previous Ilu Fitwear review where I put the bright and bold yellow signature compression workoutwear to the test
So will you be joining the “Athleisure” culture. Are you a lycra outside of the gym kinda girl? Let me know and share your look with me and Ilu Fitwear on Instagram right here @presents and @ilu_fitwear