In a recent article for The Atlantic, Derek Thompson discusses how “athleisure” or “activewear” has revolutionized fashion. Over the past two decades, companies like lululemon athletica have “injected prodigious quantities of spandex into modern dress and blurred the lines between yoga-and-spin-class attire and normal street clothes.”

It turns out that this crossover fashion is not such a new trend after all. Deirdre Clemente, a fashion historian at UNLV,  believes its origins are in the late 19th century when shoes with rubber soles were invented for lawn sports and tennis courts.  College men started playing sports and then didn’t bother changing for the classroom, so they kept their athletic wear on all day. Clemente says, “Athleisure dropped the prefix and became, simply, leisure. The theme of the past century of Western fashion is this: We take clothes designed for activity, and we adapt them for inactivity.” So whether you are “active” or not, spandex—and other athleisure—is more than appropriate no matter where you’re going and what you’re doing.

 It’s also very stretchy if you’re stuffed from latkes, eggnog, or sugar cookies. Read More Here