Sweating It Out
Slumped over an open shoe box at Nordstrom in West L.A., a tanned Leesa Mayer, 47, is decked out in navy blue Adidas track pants and a white hooded sweatshirt.
“Aren’t they the cutest?” asks the Beverly Hills blond, an arm loaded with gold jewelry reaching past her Louis Vuitton tote for a red sling-back shoe.
Forget Prada’s d’Orsay pumps and Gucci’s bamboo heels. It’s Nike’s “Visi Mazy” cross trainers that have Mayer salivating.
“I used to be a Manolo girl,” says the former retailer. Then, two years ago, she abandoned her $2,000 crocodile stilettos for a wardrobe of sneakers and sweatpants. “Nowadays, if you carry a good purse and have a big ring, you can wear anything.”
Sneakers and sweatpants have stepped fashionably out of the gym and onto the street as L.A.’s new urban uniform. The days when a woman’s status could be measured solely by her costume have gone the way of hoop skirts, corsets and white gloves. Both body conscious and unconscious at the same time, the new leisure wear appeals to women of all ages and sizes and has been spotted everywhere from the Mariposa lunchroom at Neiman Marcus to the nail salons of Studio City.
“Used to be, when you walked into a store like Neiman’s dressed like this, you wouldn’t get service. They would assume you couldn’t afford it. Now they figure it out,” says Lori Seker, a 46-year-old interior decorator from West L.A. who was shopping with Mayer and also clad in Adidas pants.
Leisure wear’s last fashion moment was during the aerobics-crazed 1980s. Women then took style cues from Jane Fonda and “Flashdance,” donning oversized pastel sweatshirts from Au Coton or Camp Beverly Hills with fashion color high-tops from Reebok or L.A. Gear, leg warmers and braided headbands.
But today it’s less of a fad and more of a reaction to the fashion status quo. Many women have had it with clothes that don’t fit, are too expensive or just aren’t relevant to their active lives. The new urban uniform is relaxed but tidy, with a bit of style punch. This time around, women are still picking up tips from their fitness trainers, though now they are often from personal trainers.
This revolution in dressing is much bigger than any one label. Old-school sneaker giants Adidas, Puma and Pony have cashed in on their vintage cachet, reviving classic logo wear and sneaker styles from the 1970s in updated color combinations and shapes. And Nike is trying to appeal to soccer moms with its new Nike Goddess clothing stores.
The high-fashion world has jumped on board too. Puma partnered with fashion designer Jil Sander to create limited-edition styles. And Adidas tapped Yohji Yamamoto and Stella McCartney to make sneakers, at about $300 a pair, for upscale boutiques such as Maxfield. Even luxury brands Chanel, Gucci and Prada offer sneakers and active wear.
“Sneakers are so much more than just sports shoes now,” says Abby Guyer, Adidas trend marketing manager.
But it is Juicy Couture in the San Fernando Valley that has elevated sweats from sloppy to sexy with new silhouettes and details that are trickling down to Old Navy and Mossimo for Target.
“There is a whole casual-yoga-spa wear thing happening at retail, and a lot of it is based on what Juicy has done,” says Kathy Bradley-Riley, a market analyst for fashion trend forecasting firm Doneger Group in New York.
Fashion designer Pamela Skaist-Levy, 38, and former actress Gela Nash-Taylor, 41, founded Juicy Couture in 1994 as an upscale T-shirt line. The company has since expanded into denim and in 1999 introduced its now signature low-riding drawstring pants and form-fitting zip-up hoodies in an ever-widening array of colored and patterned velour, terry cloth and even cashmere. Tops and bottoms start at about $70 each and are typically worn together as a kind of fashionable leisure suit.
“Everyone wants to wear sweats. It’s the first thing you do when you get home--you take off your clothes and put something comfortable on,” says Nash-Taylor, who is married to Duran Duran’s John Taylor. “But ours have a sexy fit, and the fabric keeps its color, so you don’t feel like you’re leaving the house with curlers in your hair, looking like a slob. You look put together enough to go where you want to go.”
The Ron Herman boutiques started carrying Juicy Couture’s updated leisure suits three seasons ago, and they are still top sellers. “When I first bought the line, I didn’t think people were going to wear the pieces together,” says John Eshaya, women’s wear buyer for the stores. “But the look has become the thing to wear on your day off. The jackets are high, the pants are low, so you get a little midriff action going....It’s perfect for the L.A. girl.”
Other labels are focusing more on embellishment. Great China Wall specializes in one-of-a-kind, hand-embroidered and tie-dyed vintage sweatshirts and sweatpants for $200 and up. L.A. hair accessories line Joomi Joolz and jewelry designer Tarina Tarantino have added rhinestone-studded tank tops and sweats to their collections.
“I work out every day of the week, and this is something I can keep on through the afternoon until I change to go out for the evening,” says Lisa Machat, 46, a full-time mom shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue recently in black sweatpants with a flared leg and a Great China Wall sweatshirt embellished with rhinestones and Harley logos, topped off with a Chanel quilted black patent tote. But even with leisure wear storming the streets, there’s still style-building going on in the gym. Forget Tiger Woods--sportswear labels are now making sponsorship deals with personal trainers for product placement.
“I can’t tell you how many clients ask me what stores have the stuff I wear or what I think would look good on them,” says Helene Guzman, who left hairstyling six years ago to start the independent training company L.A. Rox.
Guzman, 38, favors Juicy Couture sweats and Tarina Tarantino tops. She has about 150 pairs of sneakers, many free from her sponsor, Reebok. “I try to bring as much fashion into fitness as I can,” she says.
Her clients take notice. “She does have a distinct style ... and the physique to go along with it,” says Deborah Oppenheimer, executive producer of “The Drew Carey Show” and “The George Lopez Show,” who trains with Guzman three times a week.
Oppenheimer snapped up a few Tarina Tarantino tops after seeing them on Guzman, who also convinced her to try a velour Reebok warmup suit. “I thought I could never wear it, but she said I could. And she knows my figure better than anyone,” says Oppenheimer, who wears the track suit to the gym, shopping at Hermes and to all-night editing sessions at the studio.
Of course, not everyone is hip to the new casualness or to Juicy’s leisure suits. Liz Dolan, president of accessories showroom Parallel Lines and a serial perfect outfit wearer, thinks the look is a cop-out. She says, “I kind of miss the old I. Magnin/Bullocks way of dressing up to go out.”
