When I recount on my childhood there’s two things I clearly remember spending my time doing. Climbing trees with my nine male cousins. And making up dance routines in the lounge room with my (fewer) girlfriends.
So it was really no surprise that year’s later I’d combine my love of both and take to pole dancing. From the moment I started, I loved the combination of fitness, dance and strength required to make any simple move look sexy. And maybe just as much, I loved that every class required hot shorts and high heels.
Back in the day when I started though hot pants shorts, booty briefs were really all one thing: big, oversized and ugly. 14 years ago we were more modest, we’d wear ladies sports shorts and daggy yoga clothes mid way down our legs.
Thankfully, over the year’s pole dancers, whether hobbyists or pros, have largely become desensitised to exposed flesh. Whereas once yoga shorts seemed risqué, today they’d get flatly turned down in favour of black hot pants.
Hot pants and booty briefs are to pole dance what vegemite is to toast.
A winning combination.
That’s how it came to be that I started designing dance and yoga clothes. When we launched Active Creatures we were less about activewear and far more about fitness and pole wear. In those early days as I started to experiment by purchasing more elaborate pole wear styles, most were poorly made and often had me grabbing to pull fabric back over my butt or bust.
So I dedicated my time and energy to designing the perfect hot pants shorts. Since that time my obsession has remained on designing dance clothes for different women’s bodies. While some women are petite and small, other women are far more curvy and voluptuous. Both are as sexy as hell, so my role as a fashion designer is to complement each unique body with dance clothing that is tasteful and contemporary.
I am really inspired by bright and vibrant prints that double as fashion workout clothing and bathers for swimming in during summer. While my early collections started as athleisure, as I evolved the designs, the styles started to take on a more luxe sportswear feel. I think this is the direction active wear continues to trend towards. Whatever your preferred sport or fitness workout, fashion is playing a bigger role because most often, our lifestyle dictates that we wear our gym wear from the dance studio to the local café.
My one word of advice - avoid following the pack. There's nothing worse than seeing a group of women all wearing the same brand in the same shades of black and grey. Tread your own path and have fun combining different pieces from different designers to create your truly unique and individual look.
With love,
Melody