By Athelia Woolley

I love formal dresses—silk, satin, tulle slips, black lace. I even love the way they sound. The best part of them, however, is how they make me feel. Just looking at them makes me feel, well, gorgeous. Yet, several months ago, as I was cleaning my closet, I fingered one of my favorites, a short black cocktail with thick stretch silk and sexy ruching at the hips. Just thinking about wearing it made me feel stunning, but therein was the problem. I was only thinking about wearing it. And that’s all I really did—think about it. The last time I actually wore it was over a year ago. It’s the same story with most of my formal dresses. My relationships with them mostly stay in the realm of my imagination.

Then, I looked down at my Old Navy yoga pants with a hole on the hip and a sagging behind. I wear workout clothing more than anything else, so why shouldn’t I feel gorgeous in these too?  As a Pilates instructor and former dancer, I had a lot of opinions about what is important in fitness clothing.

Here are some ideas that should be considered when shopping for any fitness clothing.

Fabric, fabric, fabric

Pick a really high quality fabric. You will sweat, stretch, run, leap (maybe!), wash and dry these clothes a thousand times. Make sure they are made to last. The fabric from our BLOSSOM line is a high-quality supplex fabric. It’s a 350 gram weight, which makes it light but still really strong. It’s also made from 97 percent spandex and 3 percent nylon. This will wick away sweat and won’t shrink or stretch with time. Other companies that use good fabrics are Lululemon and North Face. The cotton/spandex workout pants I have from Old Navy were cute when I bought them; they stayed cute for about a month. You want clothes that will last for years. Invest in the good stuff.

Color!

Who said working out had to be depressing? Workout clothes don’t need to be black, black or black. Add some fun color into the mix. Here are some colorful examples from the new Shabby Apple line pictured below.

Figure-Hugging Clothing

Now, we know that part of the reason for working out is to get rid of some parts of our bodies.  Thus we tend to want to hide these parts. But maybe, if your clothes show your figure, you will become conscious of it, and will workout more!

Something Feminine

Not all of us want to look like Rocky. Put a little something “girly” in your workout outfit. We put swirls, birds and flowers on all of our clothing to give it a feminine ‘twist’.

Know Your size

No, not all of us are 12-years old. No, we don’t need to be. If you are a medium, don’t buy the XXXS.  It is okay to be a medium. This is where the fabric comes in. If you buy really high quality fabric, it will hold you in and make you look great no matter what your size. And, good fabric ensures no “jiggling.”

Athelia Woolley is the co-owner of Shabby Apple.