What’s the most important things you consider when it comes to buying fitness apparel?  Are you someone who buys cheap and doesn’t care because you’ll just get sweat stains on it and throw it away or do you take pride in your apparel and use cute workout clothes to sometimes help motivate you to get a good workout in?

I personally love new workout clothes and as I continue to work on my upcoming clothing line, I have given a lot of thought about the most important factors to consider when shopping for workout stuff.  For me, I think it’s (in no particular order) the style, the fit, quality of material and performance.

When it comes to style and performance, some stuff looks really cute but when you actually work out in it, the button clasps come undone or the pants ride up your butt or the ties dangle in your way.  When you consider quality of material you don’t always get what you pay for, I’ve bought stuff online from smaller boutique places, with a high price tag, but then when you get it, the material feels cheap and you know you’ll only be able to wash it like 5 times, if that, before you have to throw it away.  Some Lorna Jane and lulu stuff I’ve had forever and I love it.  It lasts through a million washes and I feel like it gets better with age, so sometimes it’s worth the price in my opinion.  The fit is important too because clothes that are flattering, and you feel good in, help with confidence and make you want to wear them more often.

Here is some stuff I got recently, check it out and let me know what you think!

This is my new outfit from Titika. I think the bra is interesting because it looks more like a crop top. I’m not sure how much functional support it offers though, given that I don’t really need any support (my situation upstairs doesn’t really move much haha), so keep that in mind if you’re a lady that needs that extra support, then this bra may be better for fashion than function.

I like shape and style of the pants, and I think they do look really good, but the material is not the best of quality and it catches every hair, and every dust particle that you touch so if you have pets like me, you won’t be wearing them around the house unless you’re willing to spend some time cleaning the pants with the sticky roller.  Also they do wrinkle quite a bit.

I like the way the bra looks in the back, however you can’t adjust the straps. The pants look cute with the back pockets and the buttons didn’t even bother me when I did my workout in them.

The back of the bra does look really good, don’t you think?

Here’s my new outfit from Elisabetta Rogiani, who I had the pleasure to meet in person. She’s an Italian designer based in L.A. who has created clothing lines for some of the leading fitness models and her apparel has been featured numerous times on the front covers of all the big fitness magazines. She’s crazy passionate and gave me some great ideas I can implement in my own clothing line and for that I’m thankful!

If I can give you an advice, do not get shorts with such a short inseam because you can’t workout in them. These look really great on pictures, but If I do a squat in them, you can see half of my rear end and I have to constantly be pulling them down, it’s distracting. The magic number for an inseam that will allow you to exercise without worrying about showing your butt is 3 inches. I would totally wear this outfit if I had an important photoshoot, but I had to get another pair of shorts from her that I can actually wear in my workouts.

This outfit is from a newer brand called YogaSmoga. The best thing about it is that it’s really comfortable to workout in. I like the material a lot but as far as the fit goes, the shorts are not very flattering for my butt, however the inseam is just right where I don’t have to keep pulling them down after a set of squats or burpees. You can see this outfit in action in my latest Arm Balance yoga workout.

The bra feels really good, it’s got a mesh material inside to help vent boob sweat and I like the shape of the top, but I’m not crazy about the design and the colors. I can’t explain what exactly it is that makes me feel that way… This outfit is really functional for my workouts because it does feel really good on your body, but it’s not my favorite style. It might just not be right for my body type, maybe I would like it better if I were taller! 😉 hahah