How Athleisure wear has taken over the high street fashion and where its influences have come from

The evolution of athleisure wear has been one that’s a lot more prominent in modern days, where it’s become almost the new norm to wear this everyday without going to the gym or working out in any means. How has that happened exactly? The influences to this could be through multiple sources and explanations but there are many iconic moments that have stuck with many of us.

Gym Leggings & Blazer Combo

How did a functional piece of clothing designed for the purpose of moving your body in ways without ripping, stretching and the rest become a staple as an everyday choice among women around the world? There have been strong influences from Rosie Huntington-Whiteley – the iconic and glamorous former Victoria Secret model – pairing seamless leggings with a blazer.Why would anyone say no to looking like her.

One could argue that gym leggings stopped being so restrictive and unfashionable when fashion icons and large influencers started to wear these combos and introducing this option as a classy smart casual look.

Tracksuits

Sportswear could arguably be called America’s biggest contribution to fashion, through its rich history beginning in the early 1900s if you could believe it where sportswear was a term used to describe comfortable. With TV and Film acting as massive influences on fashion trends on both women and men.

In the mid 1970s, Bruce Lee is credited with bringing the classic stretchy tracksuit into mainstream in the film ‘Game Of Death’. All of a sudden wearing athletic tracksuits for everyday use was trending,  This arguably paved the way for individuals being accepted and ‘cool’ for wearing athleisure wear in general.

Tennis Core

Tennis wear has been continuously referenced since the 1920s, where people would associate tennis with prep and collegiate styles. Through this, inspirational luxury brands such as Fred Perry and Tory Burch have taken this piece of functional gym clothing such as the tennis skirt and tennis dress and transformed it into a high fashion piece of clothing, that effortlessly blends fashion and performance, ensuring you can serve a look while playing your best. Fashion has become more fluid with modern times where you can wear almost anything without confusion and judgment and some of the best parts is you can get the most out of your clothes, with less restrictions you are able to dress how you feel and who you feel like being that day.

With influences from the past, fashion designers are giving us the opportunity to wear something that’s comfortable and fashionable, and showing us this iconic 70s dress, it would be shameful to only bring it out for sports.

This isn’t limited to just the clothing, the Stan Smith tennis shoes designed by Adidas during the 1970s was the most worn and iconic shoes among tennis players, even named after the top tennis player of that time. Again, luxury fashion designers adopted the style and gave it another life such as Marc Jacobs influence. Tennis was brought into the fashion world through designers seeing the versatility and timeless piece the functionality brought and we don’t see it leaving any time soon.