I really feel nice when figuring out and love yoga pants. I might put on them on a regular basis, besides I’m not positive they’re an alternative choice to common pants. Is there an alternate for on a regular basis put on? One thing that’s as snug and flattering but additionally qualifies as precise pants? — Mary, Raleigh, N.C.
Yoga pants — that’s to say, leggings however with a better waist and produced from thicker materials than precise leggings (generally, although not essentially, with a little bit of flare on the ankle) — are clothes that, particularly throughout pandemic lockdowns, turned one thing of a pleasure to put on.
Prioritizing each consolation and motion, they allowed us to have our cake and snack on it at dwelling, too. Little surprise that, given the give attention to well being and wellness and our more and more dressed-down day, they’ve turn into a fundamental a part of many wardrobes.
However because the return to work has picked up a minimum of some steam, so has the controversy in regards to the precise “pants-ness” of yoga pants. Do they or do they not qualify? That is partly why they’re generally referred to as “boot-cut leggings” or “flared leggings” as a substitute of “yoga pants.” By borrowing the language of pants, they edge nearer to that class.
However let’s be trustworthy: Yoga pants aren’t pants. Pants are there to reshape the physique not directly. To tailor it into a special silhouette — straighter, longer, extra flowing — within the eyes of the watching world. To offer a modicum of safety or social camouflage. Yoga pants, alternatively, are rather more about revealing the physique in a few of its glory. And revealing the physique within the office or on the road is an advanced choice.
Fortunately, the stylist Tina Chai mentioned, there’s a center floor. First, attempt to perceive what precisely it’s you want most about your yoga pants. Is it the factor of stretch? The elastic waist? The truth that they sit near the legs however don’t constrain them? The way in which they announce your exercise routine to the world? Then resolve which of these values is most essential. More than likely, there’s a real-world substitute.
Certainly, an Italian model known as Excessive Sport has just about made its title by providing very costly stretch pants with a little bit of a flare. (It calls them the Kick pants.) They’re produced from technical material and derived from just about the identical genetic materials as yoga pants.
To not be outdone, manufacturers like Alo Yoga have expanded their choices to incorporate pantlike kinds that nonetheless share many qualities with yoga pants (and are extra inexpensive than Excessive Sport variations).
Wherever you store, Ms. Chai suggested that you just search for “pull-on pants — no buttons or zippers.” Then, she mentioned, select a “knit that’s tightly woven and compact so it offers the pants construction, which makes them flattering, however with a little bit of stretch, which makes them snug.”
Lastly, for some styling oomph, she suggests pairing your yogalike pants with a high or jacket in the identical colour for a monochromatic look. “It will probably take you from the workplace to a celebration or the airplane, all with the change of a shoe,” she mentioned. And perhaps a solar salutation or two.
