Fashion in Yoga dress

FESCH.TV INFORMIERT:

Saturday morning in New York, I arose very, very early, around 5:30 A.M., to get ready for my inaugural hot yoga class. It was a mandatory part of my teacher training, and I had spent the previous night guzzling water and munching on fruit and almonds, trying to prepare my body for the immense amount of sweat it would surely produce as a result of the 105-degree room and the 26-posture sequence I would do during the 90-minute class. I had been doing a ton of yoga that summer, but hot yoga is a different beast entirely, so I wanted to ensure that I was as equipped as I could possibly be.

But it seemed the most important part of my preparation took place that morning after I got up, and had nothing to do with sustenance or hydration. I wanted the perfect outfit. I wanted to wear something that was, obviously, lightweight, and that I didn’t particularly care if I soaked through with sweat – but more than that, I wanted to wear something that helped me feel fierce, strong, nearly invincible. Fashion has always been that for me: something close to armor, a way to assert myself in the world with strength, present the image I want to present to the world, and endow myself with the traits I aspire to. I chose to wear a cut-off vintage camo Top Gun t-shirt, a bandanna tied around my head, and black high-waisted undies.

That morning got me thinking about the roles fashion and yoga play in my life. During my training, I had a teacher who was fond of saying, “Yoga is not a fashion show.” He meant to express that yoga is not a performance for others, but rather an internal experience contingent upon the practitioner’s looking and focusing inward. He was speaking out against the current trendiness of yoga and observing that people sometimes go to yoga class not to work on themselves, but to show off their new yoga clothes, mat, or even their levels of strength and flexibility. I practice and teach yoga regularly, and I’ve been fanning the flames of my lifelong love for fashion through writing for this beloved site as well as creating my own blog, and I’ve come to believe that contrary to appearances, the two enterprises share a core truth: they are vehicles by which one can both discover one’s core self and endlessly re-shape one’s identity.