Betsey Johnson and her model yogis at NY Fashion Week, February 11, 2013.
A fashion show runway, not the first place that comes to mind when you think of yoga. Or even yoga fashion. But leave it to the creative and technicolored mind of veteran designer Betsey Johnson to bring a wild and wacky yoga spectacle to New York Fashion Week.
Debuting her new “active wear” fall line entitled “BJ Kicks A” Monday evening at Lincoln Center, Johnson took a slight departure from her usual living-in-a-teenage-daydream of prom dresses bursting with bright colors, sassy animal prints and plaids to living-in-a-teenage-daydream of yoga pants popping with bright colors, sassy animal prints and plaids.
Betsey Johnson, a 70-year-old breast cancer survivor and bundle of spunkiness personified, preceded her signature show-closing cartwheel with a full on aerobic performance featuring models on hot pink yoga mats using BJ-branded champagne for dumbbells and neon sneakers as, well, hand mitts? The hyperactive yoga/workout theatrics complete with push-ups, lifting “weights” and yoga poses continued for 15 minutes while showgoers looked on, likely in equal parts disbelief and delight, before Betsey Johnson’s surprise handstand followed by the cartwheel and split finale. (It’s like we always say, it ain’t over til the cartwheel splits.)
As for this collection, the Betsey Johnson fashion models always look kind of like if a troll doll and Rainbow Bright had a baby on the runway, but separately we could totally see the pieces giving Donna Karan and her demure black a run for her money. We’ve been getting used to this yogatime to daytime to nighttime thing for while now (please, we live in yoga pants) but to see it on the runway is still kind of a shocker. What do you think?
[via] [Fun gifs thanks to Style Bistro.]
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Earlier…
- Russell Simmons Enters Yoga Retail with ‘Tantris’ Line, Plans for Studios and Vegan Restaurants
- Lululemon, Runway Fashion? Ask Versace
- Yoga Pants Make Vancouver 3rd Worst-Dressed City in the World
- Vivienne Tam Yokes Fashion and Yoga: A Foray into Spiritual Materialism
- Yoga Class Playlists Are the New MTV
I think Betsey is a Badass! She is still having a blast at 70 years old, and doing handstands in front of millions, you go girl! and some of those pants are serious fun.
i probably can’t afford it, but hey all the other yogawear sites are already charging upwards of $60 for black spandex pants which used to be the fashion staple of the walmart crowd . it’s a welcome alternative to the usual hippie wear and she does look like she’s having a blast.
this is AMAZING!! i love it and everything about it! thanks for sharing. http://extendyoga.com/
Tasteless concept – trashy execution.
Reminds me of the fun rock star vibe that once permeated downtown NYC yoga before the luluniform took over. Love it. Betsey Johnson has always been about freedom of expression and celebrating life as a gift. Great place from which to begin on the path of yoga.
just. so. wrong.
(in all the right ways 🙂