Sure you do, women of the workforce! Yoga pants are worldwide these days.
Now these stretchy, "workout" pants are establishing themselves in the workplace. Specifically among the creative class, which is busy mixing and matching upscale (read: costs more than the average electric bill) yoga pants with scarves, pumps and Prada. As Fortune magazine deeply exhales and reports:
"I believe Lululemon was the gateway drug for women wearing yoga pants in public," says Rebecca McKinney Blair, founder of Whistle Club boutique in Santa Barbara, which will carry a $400 luxury sweat pant this fall.Gateway drug? Um, okay. Namaste. Whatever we call it, this "athleisure" stuff can be incredibly expensive. We're talking yoga pants for work that cost more than $400. With yoga gear, you can spend as much as you want, although Costco and Old Navy's $20 yoga pants are just as serviceable. Yoga pants all look the same from a distance, for better and for worse."Comfort is key today. And when we’re simultaneously celebrating comfort in fashion (like a time when Birkenstocks are in style and not relegated to hippies) it becomes more acceptable to invest in such pieces."
Now imagine a work colleague is walking down the hall toward you saying she needs to ask you a question, and you think to yourself: "Are those...yoga pants? Oh, they can't be yoga pants because she's wearing heels. Besides, nobody would be that unprofessional."
Some stylish yoga pants, however, can look a lot like jeggings or trendy cropped pants, and unless you look closely you may not realize that your work colleague is trying to pass off yoga wear in the 2 p.m. breakout session.
Of course, there's the question of whether or not yoga pants look professional on the job. Plenty of people seem to have enough trouble with yoga pants making an appearance at the grocery store, much less at their 11 a.m. client meeting.
You're not fooling me, Ms. Northwest Senior Sales Associate! Those are yoga pants, not leggings!
Why is this trend happening? Well, it's no secret that our office fashion standards have been loosening for years now thanks to casual Friday, the Millennials, and the neon 1980s. Companies that are downward dog with yoga pants at work think it's all good -- as long as the employee's sartorial ensemble looks "fashion-forward" and "presents well."
Presumably, this means that the employee is mixing and matching yoga pants with appropriate shoes and proper, professional-looking accessories. The employee is also wearing a shirt long enough to cover her backside, which is what separates the yoga-pants-wearing, upwardly-mobile working professional from the yoga-pants-wearing supermarket shopper.
Now the question is, will you be the first in your department to break the spandex ceiling?
Maybe you can "go yoga" one day at work by quietly, and creatively, pairing yoga pants with a dress shirt, accessories and heels. You know, just to see what happens. The other women in the office might think quietly, "Oh, yay! It's finally okay to wear yoga pants to work!" -- or quietly mock you behind your potentially see-through backside.
It might be wise to pack a spare work outfit, just in case you suddenly feel uncomfortable, or somebody else at work calls you on it. It's hard to be a fashion trend setter. Or so I've heard.
Whatever you decide, one thing is for sure: "Athleisure" is here, in fact it's everywhere, and now it's standing in front of the conference room leading a PowerPoint presentation. Power posing at work is still optional.
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