Sick of black activewear? Look to Princess Di for inspiration

Help! I’m sick of wearing black T-shirts to the gym.

Getting to the gym is a struggle, even before you’re greeted by the sight of sweaty hordes dressed as villains from a sci-fi movie and the pungent smell of protein-shake residue. Did you know there’s a gym in New York where it’s compulsory to dress in Darth Vader’s go-to colour? Management says the black dress code creates a spirit of inclusivity, but it’s really the laziest exercise in creativity. Inclusivity shouldn’t be about suppressing your ability to express your individuality through a banal uniform: it’s about enabling your true self to shine in a graffiti-print leotard or periwinkle sports bra to a backing track of thumping, 2000s-era dance music.

There was a time when gyms were colourful temples to peppy aerobics classes, where the fitness-inclined felt inspired to look like Jamie Lee Curtis and John Travolta in Perfect or Jane Fonda (remember those workout vids?). Even Princess Diana had her manicured finger on the racing pulse of activewear, wearing colourful attire for her London workouts. She regularly wore a sweatshirt gifted to her by entrepreneur Richard Branson promoting Virgin Atlantic to try to put off paparazzi, who’d make less money from repeated shots of her in the same old top. In 2023, Virgin Atlantic released an updated version of it, the original having sold at auction in 2019 for about $US53,500.

Recently, the former Princess of Wales’ kaleidoscopic approach to Lycra has returned to the mood-boards of stylists and fashion-followers everywhere. Clearly, it’s time to give your fashion muscles a right royal workout.

Got a style conundrum? Email damien.woolnough@nine.com.au

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