health and fitness: Beyoncé stamps her unmistakable brand on sportswear fashion

vendredi 1 avril 2016

Beyoncé stamps her unmistakable brand on sportswear fashion

Singer’s new Ivy Park label is a fusion of empowerment and enjoyment, just as she is

It is a stone-cold fact about the modern world that where there are emotional buttons to be pressed, there is a lucrative business opportunity. The festive season, for instance, is now officially ushered in by a fight to the death between retailers over who can make the general public cry the most with their Christmas ad.

So it says something about how tightly wound we are about women’s bodies and fitness that even campaigns for running leggings are conceived with that I’ve-got-something-in-my-eye feeling in mind. A commercial for the activewear label Under Armour, entitled I Will What I Want, shows American ballerina Misty Copeland in a dance studio and on stage, soundtracked by the rejection letters she received at the beginning of her career; it has clocked up 10m views on YouTube. The Adidas All In For #mygirls campaign, the Nike Better for It spots and Always’ award-winning #LikeAGirl campaign have all hit the same emotional sweetspot of physical health and female empowerment. Fourth-wave feminism is on a workout high, while still uneasy about how much female self-esteem is bound up with our bodies.