Transcending the treadmill
The Lucas Hugh woman she’s been working out all along, fitting in a 6am post-party Barry’s Bootcamp and probably running a quick 10k while the turkey was cooking. For it’s the woman who takes fitness seriously who’ll part with £250 for a pair of gym leggings; and once she has, never looks back.
“Our customers are busy women with busy schedules,” says the luxury activewear brand’s founder and creative director, Anjhe Mules. “They are committed exercisers who’d spend that much on a pair of jeans, but actually they wear their gym gear more.”
New Zealand-born Mules, a successful swimwear designer in her homeland, moved to London 13 years ago after a chance meeting with Alexander McQueen led to her being offered an internship and then a design position at the label. While the swimwear market was saturated, she spotted a gap for high performance, high fashion activewear. “I run a lot and it was difficult to find interesting and high performance running gear.” In fact, she used to wear men’s Nike because she preferred the designs. And so the idea for Lucas Hugh was born.
The brand launched in 2010, initially as a runwear line, and has since expanded into yoga, cycling, skiing, barre, cycling and triathlons – one of its newest creations is a tri-suit with a padded cycle seat and built-in sports bra. “When we first launched there was little crossover between technical performance and fashion,” Mules says. “In swimwear there were all these beautiful prints but nothing like that in athletics – there was Stella McCartney for Adidas but that was more streetwear, not functional performance gear.”
It’s the fusion of high-tech functional design and style that converts compulsive exercisers to Lucas Hugh, says Mules. The brand’s tight-weave compression leggings are produced in the same factory as Olympic racing swimsuits, complete with all technical bells and whistles: UV protective, antibacterial, moisture-wicking fabric with heat-sealed seams which reduce chafing, internal support that keeps tummies sucked in and has a Spanx-like effect on backsides, creating a silhouette more svelte than your skinniest pair of skinny jeans.
And unlike many mainstream activewear brands, womenswear isn’t denoted by a cursory splash of pink or purple. Instead Mules works with artists and photographers to create new prints each season – such as Vitascope, a feathery design created from a close-up photo of Vitamin C, and a print of the New York City skyline. Like any high fashion ready-to-wear brand, it’s the limited-edition designs that keep customers stocking up. “People keep asking for us to reproduce old prints but some of them sell out in two days and once they’re gone, they’re gone,” says Mules.
That such pieces do sell out – even at prices previously unheard of for gym gear – reflects the merging of fitness and fashion across the world, especially in this country. “At first stockists struggled to find a place for Lucas Hugh, we were stocked next to denim which made no sense at all. People were confused – is it fashion or is it sport?” Mules explains. Now people accept it as both, indicating a move towards the Antipodean habit of spending the majority of leisure time in gym gear. In Australia and New Zealand women don’t quietly slink off home after TRX or Pilates – city cafés teem with Lycra-clad bodies enjoying their post-workout flat whites in style.
“In Australia, New Zealand and America women embrace sport – it’s accepted and encouraged,” agrees Mules. “In New Zealand sport is the one thing we excel in so we take pride in our athletes. Women aspire to those fit body shapes and it inspires people to work out to achieve similar results. Whereas in the UK people are more inspired by ‘it’ girls or celebrities.”
“Sportswear has naturally evolved because of how we’re living. We know that women are spending more of their leisure time in sportswear when running errands, so activewear is becoming an essential part of their wardrobe,” says Candice Fragis, senior buyer at Net-a-Porter. “Our customers around the world are becoming more active and health and exercise are increasingly important. We quickly realised that women who invest in ready-to-wear, handbags and beauty also want the option of buying into luxury sportswear pieces too.”
It reflects a shift in the way women are dressing outside of the sporting arena too: 2014 was hands-down the year of the trainer, with sports shoes being seen on almost every runway, including Karl Lagerfeld’s spring/summer 2014 couture collection for Chanel. But rather than being a modern phenomenon, sports style has come full circle for Mules. “In the 1920s Coco Chanel got rid of corsets and the clothes she introduced were really seen as sportswear,” the designer says.