Fashion: Body balance

Photos / Greg Bowker

Break a sweat (or maybe not) in workout clothes that work overtime.

Another new year, another resolution to shaping up. For those needing motivation, there's plenty of hard-working exercise gear available now, particularly for those less extreme activities like yoga, Pilates, walking and ballet-inspired workouts.

Monochromatic tones of navy, camel and grey have filtered down because of their popularity in local and international ready-to-wear collections. These colours provide the perfect segue into post-workout dressing with the addition of helpful extras such as scarves, sandals, voluminous pants or a handy cardigan, a failsafe way to avoid having to live in your actual workout gear all day.

Major sportswear brands like Nike, New Balance and Adidas have a well-edited selection of calm sportswear available. The latter's successful collaboration with fashion designer Stella McCartney is a prime example of exciting sportswear with a distinctive fashion message. Adidas by Stella McCartney has garnered a loyal following and celebrated its 10th anniversary last year. The collaboration has no doubt instigated the slew of designer/sportswear-focused collaborations since (Givenchy for Nike; Alexander Wang for H&M) and also helped reinforce that sports luxe has become a defining look in the past decade.

That fashion/sportswear hybrid has slowly been morphing into more leisurely pursuits as designers zero in on yet another term: Athleisure. As the lines between lifestyle, fashion and activewear becomes blurred, 2015 may well be the year workout leggings become the new denim, as proclaimed by Nike chief executive Mark Parker last October.

This category is predicted by retail analysts to grow about 25 per cent in the next five years and will most likely reach its peak when Beyonce releases her own line of "athletic street wear" for Topshop later this year. McCartney also this week released her new athleisure line, StellaSport, aimed at a younger audience. If you really want to keep up with the play, the year will also see the term "health goth" infiltrate the mainstream, much to the chagrin of dark poetics already sporting a leather Rick Owens snood to their ballet barre lessons.

1 Adidas Originals top, $70. Kowtow leggings, $89 (delivery March 15) . Adidas by Stella McCartney trainers, $350.
2 We'ar leggings, $68, sandals, $285 and scarf, $145. Zambesi bodice, $350. Silver cuffs, $20 each, from The Third Eye.
3 Nike tank top, $45. Zambesi elasticated pants, $375. Adidas Originals velcro Stan Smith sneakers, $150. Ray Ban sunglasses, $410, from Sunglass Hut. Prada leather bangles, $395 each.
4 Zambesi swimsuit, $340. Tigerlily drawstring pants, $100. New Balance hooded jumper, $56. Chie Mihara leather mules, $490, from Runway.
5 Kowtow t-shirt, $99 (delivery February 15) . Adidas by Stella McCartney leggings, $120. Nike trainers, $180. Moochi jumper $250