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Today’s wealthiest women often dress like they’re going to the gym – because they are. Here’s why athleisure is society’s wealth indicator. By Ashleigh Smith A young woman rushes into a shop in downtown Milan. Her hair is pulled back in a messy bun and her skin glistens from the sweat of a recent Pilates session. There’s another woman in the boutique. This woman wears a sleek black dress and red-soled stilettos. A sales associate spots them and shoots like an arrow toward the woman most likely to result in the highest commission: the woman wearing athleisure. This example isn’t just hypothetical. A 2013 study published in The Journal of Consumer Research surveyed salesclerks in luxury stores in Milan, asking them, “Which clients were likely to spend more money?” The options were either a woman in a fur and pearls or a woman in gym clothes. The response was overwhelmingly in favor of the woman in gym clothes. Luxury fashion has long been linked to wealth and status. The affluent were able to wear clothes made of silks and satins — delicate, expensive fabrics designed for those who relaxed indoors, avoiding strenuous physical tasks. Members of the working class wore clothing made to work and move that was made from fabrics like denim or burlap, which were inexpensive and durable. With the advent of athleisure, these traditional fashion indicators of wealth and class have reversed. Athleisure, which can be traced back to the 1990s and the yoga pant, is typically made from fabrics designed for physical exertion, yet the price for clothes made of these fabrics can be very high. By 2020, the market for athleisure is estimated to reach a value of $83 billion, according to a study by GlobalData, a British data and analytics provider. The same study noted that both high fashion brands and prominent brands were “embracing” athleisure. Athleisure has become the new symbol of wealth because it shows that the wearer has free time to fill with expensive exercise classes and the ability
to choose to wear the same styles for both work and play. The idea of “leisurewear” dates back to the 1930s. That’s “when slacks, halter-necked jumpsuits, shorts and playsuits were worn first by the rich and famous in the Hollywood Hills, the Hamptons or on the French Riviera,” said Professor Amanda Hallay, a fashion and culture historian and former editor of Couture magazine. While elites still flock to posh spots like the Hamptons, they’re no longer strolling the promenades in shorts and slacks, they’re suiting up in athleisure for boutique fitness classes like yoga, spin and barre. The boutique fitness industry is part of the $26 billion fitness market. Dominated by companies like Equinox and SoulCycle, industry players typically charge upwards of $40 for a single class and membership fees as high as $250 per month, according to The New York Times. That can add up to lifetime totals of $100,000 or more, excluding lifestyle-specific extras like personal training sessions, dieticians or the occasional juice cleanse. Athleisure is the nylon thread that connects the pricy pastime of fitness with the everyday life of those with wealth and status. Generally, only the affluent — managers, professionals, owners — have the ability to decide whether their work attire should be a business suit or nylon capris. “It’s not only the fact that people have the time to do all of this stuff, but it’s also the idea that you’re so busy that you have to go right to work,” said Dr. Ethan Lascity, director of fashion media at Southern Methodist University. For the affluent, the same clothes that work for exercise are also appropriate to wear in one’s professional life, he said. In a society where leggings are now considered luxe, comfort is clearly the new indicator of the uncomfortable divide between the haves and the have-nots.
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