Posts Tagged ‘representation of yoga’
Fashion faux-ga: an actual Vancouverite, in yoga pants (image by Les Bazso via calgaryherald.com)
Oh, Vancouver! The world loves you and hates you for giving us Lululemon. The internet is ablaze with news of a recent MSN Travel list ranking Vancouver as the third worst dressed city IN THE WORLD. Right after Orlando and Maui (which isn’t even a city, but whatever! Neither is fourth place winner, Harajuku, Japan).
Vivian Song, the MSN writer responsible for the list, wrote:
There is one reason, and one reason only, why we’ve decided to include Vancouver on this list of the sartorially damned: yoga pants. We blame you, Vancouver, birthplace of a certain, insanely popular yoga gear brand which will go unnamed, for spawning a street trend dreaded by all women with wobbly bits and fat deposits in the wrong places. Really, what gives with the whole wearing of bum hugging workout gear to every other place except the gym? On behalf of women with hips and thighs everywhere, who like their pants to have buttons and zippers thank you very much, and who are of the opinion that yoga pants are a ruse worn by lazy pseudo-fashionistas, we beseech you: unless you plan to do a downward dog within the hour, spare us the yoga pants and put on some real trousers.
“Yoga pants are not pants,” Vancouver retail employee Zoe Brooks told The Province newspaper. “If you’re going to yoga, wear your yoga pants. You can always throw on a skirt or trousers (when you leave). It takes the same amount of effort.” But she understands the trend. “I think everybody secretly likes to wear yoga pants. It’s a guilty pleasure. They give us some lift and tighten everything up.”
Lululemon seems to be taking the whole thing in stride, as evidenced in this CTV news clip. One Vancouver location updated their front window display to read “#3 in the world. #1 in our pants.” Kinda cryptic, but insiders and media junkies will know what it means.
All is not lost, Vancouver. Perhaps your tourism marketers can team up with Girlsinyogapants.com for a little rebranding.
How do you feel about yoga pants in a non-yoga setting? Let us know!
Vivienne Tam launched her new designer yoga wear line yesterday at New York Fashion Week. Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman were on hand to guide 20 yoga teacher/models through a “live sculpture garden” in the outdoor plaza of Lincoln Centre. Rushed production directors reminded models to look peaceful and serene, even though “this is fashion, not yoga.”
The union of yoga and fashion is nothing new, with designers such as Marc Jacobs and Donna Karan releasing yoga lines years ago. There is also no shortage of yoga wear which is designed to look good in the studio and on the street. Even the announcer in the NY Post video above was aware that yoga has become big business, citing Lululemon’s multimillion dollar stake in the yoga apparel world.
In the video, one of the models makes the classic argument for capitalizing on yoga: “If it spreads yoga to more people who otherwise wouldn’t try it, then it’s a good thing.”
What do you think? Is this argument applicable any more? Will fashionable yoga clothes get people on the mat? And if so, does it even matter?
“Yoga morons” on a New York City subway train get on gawker.com‘s nerves! “Isn’t their little public performance so joie de vivre and spontaneous and FUN? NO, it is not. It is dumb and obnoxious. We would rather sit on a train car full of shoe lickers than have to endure one of these.”
Oooh, sharp. But kind of true. I have to admit that I felt a little embarrassed watching this acroyoga demonstration, with accompanying giggles and homeless jokes.
How would you respond to seeing this on a crowded subway car? And what is the most embarrassing public display of yoga that you’ve seen?
Gawker.com: Yoga Morons Pose All Over NYC Subway Car, Make Homeless ‘Joke’
The photo caption on Slate.com’s article on the yoga memoir as a lively new sub-genre says, “Writing about yoga is nearly as popular as practicing it.”
There is definitely some truth in that. The article takes a look at recent yoga-themed memoirs, including Suzanne Morrison’s Yoga Bitch: One Woman’s Quest to Conquer Skepticism, Cynicism, and Cigarettes on the Path to Enlightenment, Neal Pollack’s Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude and Claire Deder’s Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Poses.
“Since the 2006 publication of Elizabeth Gilbert’s blockbuster memoir Eat, Pray, Love, another trend has surfaced: the profusion of searching first-person narratives of yogic self-betterment,” notes writer and practitioner, Laura Moser in the article.
I find this interesting because I’m aware that, as a white, literate, self-betterment-seeking woman in my mid-30s, I am the target market for these books. In fact, if I’d had gotten my ass in gear, I could have published my own yoga memoir by this time: a gripping story of a woman lost and aimless in her late 20s, who moves to a North American ashram to find herself and then ends up editing a yoga magazine in a slightly sinful city, and finally finds contentment and self-acceptance as a yoga blogger. Fascinating!
I am also intrigued by Laura’s baseline complaint about these recent memoirs: “The yoga theme seemed, if you will, overstretched at times. Despite having intermittently practiced yoga for exactly a decade myself, I did get pretty tired of all the ‘yogic’ revelations dropped into these books as if by editorial fiat.” Continue Reading
