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‘Love cotton and loathe Lycra’ – a brief history of unexpected workout gear

Lenny Kravitz has been working out in leather and Cuban heeled boots, but he isn’t the first to sideline athleisure in favour of his signature style

Workout selfies of gym bunnies wearing figure-hugging leggings, short-shorts and biceps-baring tops have become as commonplace as spotting someone slugging down a protein shake on your morning commute. From skiing in neatly ironed Oxford shirts to lunging in formal cords, it appears to be a trend among a certain older cohort – the same generation that think drinking eight glasses of water a day is some kind of conspiracy theory. In 2016, 23-year-old Juris Silenieks won an Atlanta half marathon wearing brown dress shoes, while illustrations from Good Housekeeping in the 1920s show women performing push-ups in pyjamas.

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