1 00:00:06,548 --> 00:00:09,926 Imagine two customers walk into a luxury store. 2 00:00:10,010 --> 00:00:12,178 One is wearing a dress and a fur coat. 3 00:00:12,262 --> 00:00:14,848 The other is wearing a jacket and gym clothes. 4 00:00:14,931 --> 00:00:17,767 Which would you guess would be able to spend more money? 5 00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:21,396 When researchers asked employees at boutique shops in Milan 6 00:00:21,479 --> 00:00:23,440 that question in 2013, 7 00:00:23,523 --> 00:00:27,902 their answer was overwhelmingly the person in gym clothes. 8 00:00:27,986 --> 00:00:30,030 But even as recently as the '90s, 9 00:00:30,113 --> 00:00:32,699 wearing sweatpants in public was a TV punchline. 10 00:00:33,450 --> 00:00:35,035 Again with the sweatpants? 11 00:00:35,118 --> 00:00:37,829 Know the message you're sending to the world with sweatpants? 12 00:00:37,912 --> 00:00:40,206 You're telling the world, "I give up." 13 00:00:41,499 --> 00:00:43,668 Because for thousands of years, 14 00:00:43,752 --> 00:00:46,004 clothing more or less followed the same rules. 15 00:00:47,213 --> 00:00:50,717 The quality of your fabric and tailoring was a status symbol. 16 00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:53,803 If you could afford it, you hired a tailor or seamstress. 17 00:00:54,345 --> 00:00:57,932 Clothing clearly separated the rich from the poor 18 00:00:58,016 --> 00:00:59,601 and men from women. 19 00:01:00,894 --> 00:01:04,022 There used to be a lot of things that women needed to do 20 00:01:04,105 --> 00:01:07,108 in order to present themselves to be accepted. 21 00:01:08,359 --> 00:01:10,195 And we're breaking those barriers, 22 00:01:10,278 --> 00:01:12,864 and here we are, and leggings are taking over the world. 23 00:01:14,741 --> 00:01:18,203 Today, men and women wear a lot of the same things. 24 00:01:18,286 --> 00:01:22,415 Some of the world's richest people dress like anyone you pass on the street. 25 00:01:22,499 --> 00:01:25,460 And high fashion looks to streetwear for inspiration. 26 00:01:26,795 --> 00:01:31,925 Activewear like this has become a global market worth over $300 billion. 27 00:01:32,008 --> 00:01:34,677 It's almost a quarter of all the clothes we buy. 28 00:01:35,261 --> 00:01:36,805 How did that happen? 29 00:01:36,888 --> 00:01:41,351 How did we start dressing so casually, and why do we do it? 30 00:01:42,477 --> 00:01:46,147 Our designers have developed new fashions for casual living. 31 00:01:46,231 --> 00:01:50,151 This is a synthetic fiber. You mean we make cloth out of that? 32 00:01:50,235 --> 00:01:53,905 Research in miracle fabrics has created a clothing revolution. 33 00:01:53,988 --> 00:01:56,116 I'm here for the spandex. 34 00:01:56,199 --> 00:02:00,578 And I just love how fashion is finally just becoming more and more cultural. 35 00:02:01,871 --> 00:02:06,126 I want to wear my working out clothes in my day to day life. 36 00:02:06,209 --> 00:02:07,377 It was more casual, 37 00:02:07,460 --> 00:02:10,046 but at the same time, you could go anywhere. 38 00:02:15,885 --> 00:02:18,930 Yeah, the word "Athleisure" probably came in.. 39 00:02:19,013 --> 00:02:20,014 I don't know what.. 40 00:02:20,098 --> 00:02:25,311 It's some.. Somewhere around 2011, 2012, 41 00:02:25,395 --> 00:02:26,896 and it was almost like a joke. 42 00:02:26,980 --> 00:02:30,108 Are we wearing more sportswear because we're exercising more? 43 00:02:30,191 --> 00:02:31,985 Uh, no. 44 00:02:32,068 --> 00:02:33,695 Athleisure. Athleisure. 45 00:02:33,778 --> 00:02:36,114 Wear gym clothes and still look fabulous. 46 00:02:36,197 --> 00:02:39,659 Do you work out in those pants? Yeah, I think so. 47 00:02:39,742 --> 00:02:41,661 But you haven't? No, I haven't. 48 00:02:44,622 --> 00:02:48,751 While the term "Athleisure" may be new, the trend definitely isn't. 49 00:02:49,669 --> 00:02:52,297 And it all started with free time. 50 00:02:54,465 --> 00:02:56,968 Free time is associated with the ruling class. 51 00:02:57,051 --> 00:02:59,929 I mean, throughout history, the ruling class had leisure 52 00:03:00,013 --> 00:03:03,391 because servants or slaves were doing all of the actual work. 53 00:03:04,184 --> 00:03:06,102 But by the early 20th century, 54 00:03:06,186 --> 00:03:10,106 life was getting better for average people in industrializing countries. 55 00:03:10,190 --> 00:03:14,277 New time-saving technologies and pressure from organized labor 56 00:03:14,360 --> 00:03:17,071 ushered in regulations on work hours. 57 00:03:17,822 --> 00:03:21,659 The average work week dropped from 65 to 46 hours 58 00:03:21,743 --> 00:03:24,120 in the span of a single lifetime. 59 00:03:24,204 --> 00:03:26,956 One of the biggest drops was in the U.S. 60 00:03:27,624 --> 00:03:30,543 What you find by the beginning of the 20th century 61 00:03:30,627 --> 00:03:34,839 is that people of the middling sort start to have more leisure time 62 00:03:34,923 --> 00:03:38,343 so they also can participate in sports. 63 00:03:42,055 --> 00:03:45,308 Indoor gyms sprung up in cities across America. 64 00:03:45,391 --> 00:03:47,936 That concept had been recently pioneered in Germany, 65 00:03:48,019 --> 00:03:49,896 inspired by the ancient Greeks. 66 00:03:49,979 --> 00:03:54,275 The word "Gymnasium" actually comes from the Greek "Gymnós," 67 00:03:54,359 --> 00:03:57,654 meaning "Naked," because the original gym clothes... 68 00:03:57,737 --> 00:03:58,947 Were nothing. 69 00:03:59,697 --> 00:04:02,325 And that would've been a lot less constricting 70 00:04:02,408 --> 00:04:05,578 than the outfits of gym goers in the late 1800s. 71 00:04:06,329 --> 00:04:10,124 But then their clothes started getting more comfortable. 72 00:04:10,250 --> 00:04:14,420 That's because gyms were private spaces segregated by gender, 73 00:04:14,504 --> 00:04:17,131 which meant women could wear new designs like bloomers 74 00:04:17,215 --> 00:04:19,759 that would've been scandalous on city streets. 75 00:04:20,927 --> 00:04:22,553 At the risk of arrest, 76 00:04:22,637 --> 00:04:26,391 women campaigned to make those more comfortable styles acceptable. 77 00:04:26,474 --> 00:04:30,895 Because at the time, women's clothes could be extremely restrictive. 78 00:04:30,979 --> 00:04:33,690 Wealthy women sometimes needed help getting dressed. 79 00:04:34,941 --> 00:04:37,610 But once women were able to play sports in college 80 00:04:37,694 --> 00:04:39,487 and bicycles took off in cities... 81 00:04:40,280 --> 00:04:43,283 Those casual clothes stopped being so private. 82 00:04:44,075 --> 00:04:46,953 And that's when things really started to change. 83 00:04:48,204 --> 00:04:49,914 Just look at tennis outfits. 84 00:04:49,998 --> 00:04:56,045 In 1900, players wore ankle length skirts, long sleeves, and corsets. 85 00:04:56,129 --> 00:04:59,674 Then skirts got shorter and shorter. 86 00:04:59,757 --> 00:05:02,260 Tennis players like France's Suzanne Lenglen 87 00:05:02,343 --> 00:05:04,137 became style icons. 88 00:05:04,220 --> 00:05:07,557 She served up a costume that made the game more interesting. 89 00:05:08,599 --> 00:05:10,935 Her signature knee length pleated skirts, 90 00:05:11,019 --> 00:05:14,480 sleeveless tops, rolled stockings, and headbands 91 00:05:14,564 --> 00:05:16,232 helped her play the sport better, 92 00:05:16,316 --> 00:05:20,111 and young women started copying her look as a progressive statement. 93 00:05:21,195 --> 00:05:22,405 By the 1920s, 94 00:05:22,488 --> 00:05:26,784 Vogue magazine regularly featured tennis inspired looks on its cover. 95 00:05:27,660 --> 00:05:31,164 Clothes made for sports were becoming mainstream fashion. 96 00:05:32,540 --> 00:05:35,501 What you see in America by the early 20th century 97 00:05:35,585 --> 00:05:37,378 is a kind of blurring of those things. 98 00:05:37,462 --> 00:05:39,213 So something like a sweater, 99 00:05:39,297 --> 00:05:41,549 which you originally would wear to sweat in 100 00:05:41,632 --> 00:05:44,844 while you were in active leisure pursuits, 101 00:05:44,927 --> 00:05:49,223 then became something that you would wear to look casual and sportive. 102 00:05:51,392 --> 00:05:54,395 I certainly feel much more comfortable playing in shorts 103 00:05:54,479 --> 00:05:59,525 because my skirt doesn't flap around when I putt and when I walk over hills. 104 00:06:00,485 --> 00:06:03,488 Clothing that allows people to move freely and comfortably.. 105 00:06:03,571 --> 00:06:06,491 almost all of it began as sports apparel. 106 00:06:07,367 --> 00:06:10,870 Sneakers come from croquet, Henley shirts from rowing, 107 00:06:10,953 --> 00:06:12,622 and turtlenecks come from polo. 108 00:06:14,457 --> 00:06:19,212 That new casual American style became known as sportswear. 109 00:06:20,338 --> 00:06:21,881 Commercials like this one 110 00:06:21,964 --> 00:06:25,176 advertised these clothes as comfortable, easy to wash... 111 00:06:25,259 --> 00:06:28,012 Radiant from head to toe in man made materials. 112 00:06:28,096 --> 00:06:30,390 And made out of plastic. 113 00:06:31,849 --> 00:06:33,893 For almost all of human history, 114 00:06:33,976 --> 00:06:37,605 textiles were made from either animals or plants. 115 00:06:37,688 --> 00:06:40,566 Worms gave us silk, sheep gave us wool, 116 00:06:40,650 --> 00:06:43,694 goats gave us cashmere, flax plants gave us linen, 117 00:06:43,778 --> 00:06:46,989 and cotton shrubs, of course, gave us cotton. 118 00:06:47,073 --> 00:06:48,491 If you look at cotton, 119 00:06:48,574 --> 00:06:50,743 it was readily accessible to most everybody, 120 00:06:50,827 --> 00:06:53,704 and it was grown pretty much all over the world, 121 00:06:53,788 --> 00:06:56,749 so everybody had access to it, but it has limitations. 122 00:06:56,833 --> 00:06:59,877 Cotton can hold about eight percent of its weight in water. 123 00:06:59,961 --> 00:07:03,172 For wool, it can be up to 30%. 124 00:07:03,256 --> 00:07:06,968 These wool swimsuits weighed eight pounds when they got wet. 125 00:07:08,219 --> 00:07:13,474 But then scientists discovered how to make a totally new kind of fiber in a lab. 126 00:07:13,558 --> 00:07:15,101 The magic of modern chemistry 127 00:07:15,184 --> 00:07:19,188 rocketed us into a new world of modern fabrics. 128 00:07:19,272 --> 00:07:22,150 In the span of a few decades, the chemical company DuPont 129 00:07:22,233 --> 00:07:25,570 introduced the world to all of these synthetic fibers. 130 00:07:27,196 --> 00:07:29,157 First, there was nylon. 131 00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:31,534 DuPont marketed the silk like fabric to women 132 00:07:31,617 --> 00:07:35,288 as an alternative to the scratchy wool stockings of the time. 133 00:07:35,371 --> 00:07:36,497 They were a hit. 134 00:07:36,581 --> 00:07:40,751 On the run come the ladies. Free nylons just for the scramble. 135 00:07:40,835 --> 00:07:44,130 It may only prove that a woman wants to be a knockout 136 00:07:44,213 --> 00:07:46,757 even if she has to KO her friends to do it. 137 00:07:47,550 --> 00:07:49,218 Soon, fashion magazines 138 00:07:49,302 --> 00:07:52,263 were filled with ads for new man made fibers, 139 00:07:52,346 --> 00:07:56,225 claiming they would free women from time consuming clothes care. 140 00:07:57,143 --> 00:08:00,396 And then DuPont invented something revolutionary. 141 00:08:02,148 --> 00:08:04,025 I think we need to talk about spandex. 142 00:08:04,901 --> 00:08:08,446 Spandex, first marketed under the brand name Lycra, 143 00:08:08,529 --> 00:08:12,408 would be blended with natural fibers to make it more lightweight, elastic, 144 00:08:12,492 --> 00:08:14,160 and flattering to your figure. 145 00:08:14,911 --> 00:08:17,872 It meant that you could create garments 146 00:08:17,955 --> 00:08:22,043 that fit much closer to the body, but that were so comfortable. 147 00:08:22,877 --> 00:08:26,464 That made it possible to create form fitting clothes 148 00:08:26,547 --> 00:08:30,092 without clever and expensive cutting and seaming. 149 00:08:31,177 --> 00:08:32,512 Once you had lycra, 150 00:08:32,595 --> 00:08:36,015 any old stupid manufacturer could do body-worshiping clothes. 151 00:08:36,098 --> 00:08:40,019 Body hugging spandex revolutionized what we wore for sports. 152 00:08:40,102 --> 00:08:42,313 For swimming, skiing, cycling, 153 00:08:42,396 --> 00:08:45,191 dancing, and yoga. 154 00:08:47,026 --> 00:08:51,155 But there's one big problem with spandex.. It's very clingy... 155 00:08:51,239 --> 00:08:54,492 In areas you may not want it to cling. 156 00:08:57,537 --> 00:09:00,248 Are you ready to do the workout? Yeah. 157 00:09:00,331 --> 00:09:03,960 Now, if you look at the Jane Fonda videos, they've solved that problem 158 00:09:04,043 --> 00:09:07,505 by having basically a bodysuit over top of the leotards. 159 00:09:07,588 --> 00:09:11,384 Stomach tight, buttocks pulled in... But then came yoga pants. 160 00:09:15,012 --> 00:09:16,556 I started lululemon 161 00:09:16,639 --> 00:09:19,267 on the premise that this pant was perfect. 162 00:09:19,350 --> 00:09:24,272 The number one key invention was the gusset in the crotch. 163 00:09:24,981 --> 00:09:28,109 That's right, the gusset in the crotch. 164 00:09:28,734 --> 00:09:31,862 It's a diamond-shaped piece of fabric in between the pant legs 165 00:09:31,946 --> 00:09:34,198 that increases coverage and flexibility. 166 00:09:35,199 --> 00:09:39,036 I just basically took that bodysuit and built that into the pant. 167 00:09:39,120 --> 00:09:42,039 So then it became acceptable for a woman 168 00:09:42,123 --> 00:09:46,419 to leave a sweaty workout and be out on the street. 169 00:09:50,172 --> 00:09:54,885 Design innovations like this made skin tight clothes less revealing. 170 00:09:54,969 --> 00:09:58,973 I want to be able to... Have it be acceptable 171 00:09:59,056 --> 00:10:01,892 that I can go and work out, 172 00:10:01,976 --> 00:10:04,103 take my kids to school, then show up to work. 173 00:10:04,186 --> 00:10:07,857 And I don't want to break the bank or have to change on the go. 174 00:10:07,940 --> 00:10:10,401 I want to wear one legging, really. 175 00:10:10,484 --> 00:10:13,904 I think that's why activewear has become so enormous. 176 00:10:14,614 --> 00:10:17,700 It just suits the modern woman. 177 00:10:17,783 --> 00:10:22,997 Today, American women are buying more stretch pants than jeans. 178 00:10:23,080 --> 00:10:27,126 But going from this to this took time. 179 00:10:28,210 --> 00:10:31,255 It took quite a long time before the public adjusted to 180 00:10:31,339 --> 00:10:34,133 what seemed to them like shocking body exposure. 181 00:10:34,216 --> 00:10:38,554 And that was something that was gradually mediated by fashion photographs, 182 00:10:38,638 --> 00:10:41,307 by movies, by television shows. 183 00:10:41,390 --> 00:10:46,395 By the early 1960s, almost every American had a screen in their home 184 00:10:46,479 --> 00:10:50,650 just as the biggest generation in American history entered their teens. 185 00:10:51,359 --> 00:10:54,320 Youth movements were also extremely important. 186 00:10:54,403 --> 00:10:57,406 You see that at the beginning of the 20th century. 187 00:10:57,490 --> 00:11:00,284 You see it again in the '60s, '70s, again in the '80s. 188 00:11:00,368 --> 00:11:02,453 I mean, it never stopped after that. 189 00:11:02,536 --> 00:11:06,499 TV also turned athletes into celebrities like never before... 190 00:11:07,541 --> 00:11:12,254 Just as professional sports teams slowly started allowing non white players. 191 00:11:12,880 --> 00:11:17,802 The number of black players in the NBA went from three in 1950 192 00:11:17,885 --> 00:11:22,264 to nearly 3/4 of all the league's players by the early 1990s. 193 00:11:23,099 --> 00:11:26,268 Seeing athletes on TV, along with their hoodies, 194 00:11:26,352 --> 00:11:30,106 their spandex, and their sneakers lead to new trends, 195 00:11:30,189 --> 00:11:32,024 and vendors took notice. 196 00:11:32,108 --> 00:11:34,193 They are looking for the cool items 197 00:11:34,276 --> 00:11:37,613 because they've seen it on TV, and they've been influenced by the fact 198 00:11:37,697 --> 00:11:40,658 that these are what all the kids are going to be wearing. 199 00:11:41,450 --> 00:11:46,330 The lifestyle of young people and their habits 200 00:11:46,414 --> 00:11:48,207 and things they're interested in 201 00:11:48,290 --> 00:11:52,962 increasingly have moved away from formal business style dressing 202 00:11:53,045 --> 00:11:55,339 towards leisure dressing. 203 00:11:55,423 --> 00:12:00,219 These new idols also inspired the fashions of a new music genre. 204 00:12:00,302 --> 00:12:01,846 ♪ My Adidas ♪ 205 00:12:01,929 --> 00:12:06,225 Run DMC released "My Adidas" on their 1986 album Raising Hell... 206 00:12:06,308 --> 00:12:07,309 ♪ I got 50 pair... ♪ 207 00:12:07,476 --> 00:12:10,730 The first rap album to crack the Billboard Top 10. 208 00:12:10,813 --> 00:12:12,440 ♪ My Adidas ♪ 209 00:12:12,523 --> 00:12:14,400 Those lyrics prompted Adidas 210 00:12:14,483 --> 00:12:17,319 to set up an endorsement deal with Run DMC, 211 00:12:17,403 --> 00:12:19,155 the first of many partnerships 212 00:12:19,238 --> 00:12:21,782 between a clothing line and a hip-hop artist. 213 00:12:21,866 --> 00:12:24,368 And those partnerships helped democratize brands 214 00:12:24,452 --> 00:12:28,497 previously associated with country clubs and exclusivity. 215 00:12:28,581 --> 00:12:30,750 This is Ralph Lauren, you know what I'm saying? 216 00:12:30,833 --> 00:12:33,669 Take it back to Polo preppy days, you know what I'm saying? 217 00:12:33,753 --> 00:12:36,714 For hip-hop performers to embrace that 218 00:12:36,797 --> 00:12:40,301 and sort of translate it in their own way 219 00:12:40,384 --> 00:12:43,846 I think was a real statement about what status means 220 00:12:43,929 --> 00:12:48,350 and who has access to status and how it's defined. 221 00:12:48,434 --> 00:12:53,189 Ultimately sort of who owned the markers of success. 222 00:12:54,440 --> 00:12:57,943 This style came to be known as streetwear. 223 00:12:58,027 --> 00:13:02,364 Slowly, people historically marginalized from the markers of success 224 00:13:02,448 --> 00:13:04,909 started to be the ones to influence them. 225 00:13:04,992 --> 00:13:06,285 And as hip-hop grew to be 226 00:13:06,368 --> 00:13:11,791 one of the most popular music genres in the world, that style spread globally. 227 00:13:11,874 --> 00:13:13,542 It started in New York City, 228 00:13:13,626 --> 00:13:16,295 moved out to mainstream America, and then on to France... 229 00:13:16,378 --> 00:13:20,341 Japanese teens are dressing, and, yes, even looking the part. 230 00:13:20,424 --> 00:13:22,593 It's just something that appeals to me, really. 231 00:13:22,676 --> 00:13:25,095 It's hip-hop, though, isn't it? It's streetwear. 232 00:13:26,555 --> 00:13:31,936 When you start having that kind of shift from formal to casual to athletic 233 00:13:32,019 --> 00:13:37,024 to, you know, whatever it-it may be, all of those things sort of upset 234 00:13:37,107 --> 00:13:41,570 what we know to be, um, the hierarchy of status, 235 00:13:41,654 --> 00:13:47,034 how we sort of very quickly aesthetically define people. 236 00:13:47,660 --> 00:13:50,621 Over the decades, these trends have had different names.. 237 00:13:50,704 --> 00:13:54,959 Sportswear, activewear, streetwear and now athleisure. 238 00:13:55,042 --> 00:13:57,586 But they've all allowed us to dress more casually, 239 00:13:57,753 --> 00:14:01,715 and that's turned the meaning of clothes upside down. 240 00:14:01,799 --> 00:14:05,052 Gym clothes can signal wealth better than fur coats. 241 00:14:05,135 --> 00:14:07,972 Women wear clothes once reserved for men, 242 00:14:08,055 --> 00:14:13,477 and billionaires make public appearances in running shoes and hoodies. 243 00:14:13,561 --> 00:14:15,855 But while more people may dress the same way, 244 00:14:15,938 --> 00:14:19,400 that doesn't mean that they're all seen the same way. 245 00:14:19,483 --> 00:14:24,405 Yes, they have the ability to walk around wearing hoodies and jeans 246 00:14:24,488 --> 00:14:29,702 because they are white dudes in Silicon Valley who are billionaires. 247 00:14:29,994 --> 00:14:32,663 Other people without that privilege, 248 00:14:32,746 --> 00:14:36,041 um, don't get to walk around in hoodies. 249 00:14:40,462 --> 00:14:42,756 For centuries, people have fought for the right 250 00:14:42,840 --> 00:14:46,594 to move freely, safely and comfortably in public 251 00:14:46,677 --> 00:14:49,263 and to show their bodies how they want to. 252 00:14:49,346 --> 00:14:52,391 Clothing is still a battleground, 253 00:14:52,474 --> 00:14:56,520 and you just need to turn on the news to see that that battle isn't over. 254 00:14:57,146 --> 00:14:59,398 Protesters wore sports jerseys, 255 00:14:59,481 --> 00:15:02,318 sleeveless shirts, and baseball caps on backwards. 256 00:15:02,401 --> 00:15:07,239 Items banned under a new dress code in the city's nightclub district. 257 00:15:07,323 --> 00:15:10,618 The fact that he was black and the fact that he's wearing a hoodie 258 00:15:10,701 --> 00:15:12,578 makes him suspicious walking home. 259 00:15:12,661 --> 00:15:15,956 The mayor of Cannes is temporarily banning women 260 00:15:16,040 --> 00:15:19,251 from wearing burkinis at the French Riviera's beaches. 261 00:15:19,335 --> 00:15:22,922 Serena Williams will be banned from wearing her black cat suit. 262 00:15:23,005 --> 00:15:26,133 Girls wearing leggings without shorts or a skirt to cover them 263 00:15:26,216 --> 00:15:27,635 will not be allowed on campus. 264 00:15:27,718 --> 00:15:31,055 The company's founder and chairman, Chip Wilson, he is stepping down 265 00:15:31,138 --> 00:15:33,515 after an uproar over these comments that he made... 266 00:15:33,599 --> 00:15:37,478 Frankly, some woman's bodies just actually don't work for it. 267 00:15:37,561 --> 00:15:41,607 We're sick and tired of our clothing and our bodies 268 00:15:41,690 --> 00:15:43,192 being policed by men. 269 00:15:46,570 --> 00:15:51,158 Athleisure and sportswear and cultural shifts 270 00:15:51,241 --> 00:15:54,870 have allowed us to value... 271 00:15:54,954 --> 00:15:57,539 Personal comfort above... 272 00:15:58,540 --> 00:15:59,917 Everything else.