At the crossroads of wellness and comfort is athleisure. One of the fastest-growing segments of the fashion industry, it's taken standard exercise clothing, like sports bras, joggers, and hoodies, and elevated it—then slapped on a hefty price tag to boot. The segment, made famous by fashion brands like Lululemon and Athleta, is projected to be a $350 billion market by 2020; yoga pants and activewear bottoms alone are a $1 billion industry.
When I think of athleisure brands, the first thing that comes to mind is Lululemon— specifically, the kind of woman the brand represents. Its advertisements are filled with women who look like myself in some ways—they're mostly blonde and white—but they have model-esque, practically unattainable figures. These are women who can afford to take expensive yoga classes and buy a pair of $118 spandex pants and matching sports bra.
But athleisure brands have to realize that not all women are white and blonde, and we don't all come from the same socio-economic background.
On an afternoon in early July, I met with Dominique Aubry at Flour Bakery and Café in the Seaport District’s Innovation and Design Building. Aubry is the CEO of fashion startup All Yoga Pants, a brand that's trying to change who fits into the world of athleisure, trying to fix the gap in the market for women of color and those with curves.
“We’re a one-stop athleisure shop for curvy women to find what they need,” Aubry said. “The idea is you can go to one place, and we have inclusive sizing, and you can find brands whether you’re an extra small or a 4- or 5XL.”
I pressed Aubry to tell me what made All Yoga Pants stand out; she herself had described the company as an "Athleisure Asos," a twist on an existing brand. But the differentiator of All Yoga Pants is not the design of the clothing. It's the pricing and quality of the pieces. Aubry prices her pants anywhere between $20 and $109, and at this mid-tier range, All Yoga Pants produces higher-quality materials than Athleta and Lululemon, and far higher than the clothing at familiar chain stores.
"Right now, if you don’t get Lululemon, then you’re basically going to Old Navy or Target," said Aubry. "That’s going to be $30, or $40, or $50, and it’s going to last you three months. It’s going to tear and pill and shrink immediately.”
The other differentiator is the promise of inclusivity, that anyone—truly, anyone—who puts on the pants is part of the All Yoga Pants community.
"For all other women, the conversation is, 'Do you like these pants or not?' I think for black and Latino women, the conversation tends to be, 'Are these pants that black girls like?'"
As a white woman in America, I don’t have to decide which athleisure brand speaks to me. They all do. Black and brown women, however, don’t automatically have that. If you scroll through the leggings section on Athleta’s website, the brand features just a few models of color (although many of them have noticeably light skin), and all the models have athletic figures. The apparent effort at representation falls short.
Aubry thinks these problems arise because black and brown women are "undervalued and misunderstood."
"For all other women, the conversation is, 'Do you like these pants or not?' I think for black and Latino women, the conversation tends to be, 'Are these pants that black girls like?'" Aubry said. "It’s a Tuesday at noon, and I just want to be regular. I’m not sitting at home Netflixing and eating ice cream in a big bag, and I’m not going to the club on a Saturday night. I want to look regular. There's a misunderstanding, because that’s not a part of the conversation for black and brown women or for curvy or even plus-sized women. It's the idea that we don’t see them as regular."
Aubry sat across from me, while I was sipping on a large chai latte and eating a slice of sour cream coffee cake. There is, she explained, an important difference between shape and size. Designers creating clothes for plus-size white women might not be taking into consideration the needs of curvy black women. And, Aubry notes, even the word "curvy" has become contentious.
"The issue has been that in communities of color, curvy has always meant to talk about butt size, small waist, larger chest—either the hourglass or a bigger bottom and a smaller top," Aubry says. "Curvy became a co-opted language to be more polite about plus size, which has caused a lot of confusion. Women who always identified as curvy are now being told, 'Well, you're not curvy.' Well, what am I?"
Often, I’ve wondered about women's clothing sizes in general. Why do men have the luxury of picking out clothes based on their exact measurements, while women shop based on the letters S,M, and L? The phrase "plus sizing" has always bothered me, too. It is typically used to describe women, not men, and it seems to be designed to play with our emotions, decreasing self esteem and increasing profits. Aubry agreed with me.
"For me, that’s the first thing we need to get rid of: vanity sizing," Aubry said. "There is that big question mark around overall health. I think that's really hard in a self-love conversation about self-awareness and not looking traditional...but there is a reality that we are definitely way above size, and I don't think calling people plus size helps that.”
Aubry wants to reframe the question, asking instead: "How do you feel about your health and wellness?" Size, she notes, does not always match up with health. Someone who wears a size six can struggle to get up a flight of stairs. Someone who wears a 12 can run a marathon.
It's not just yoga pants that need a rebranding. So-called plus-size women are actively changing their perceptions of themselves, Aubry said.
"For the women that identify as plus-size, the first thing we’re seeing across the country is a movement for self-love," she said. "You can't deal with any issue until you start from a place of love."
I decided to end our conversation by asking this: "How do you think the fashion industry can become more inclusive, both in terms of representing people of color and plus-size individuals?"
Aubry replied, "You have to love yourself, and you have to love others."
All Yoga Pants is part of the 2019 MassChallenge Boston accelerator.
