Why women are buying $900 ‘couture’ leggings

WOMEN are willing to pay big money for these leggings. Really big money. What could possibly make them so special?

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Bella Thorne at the Find Your Park launch event in New York City, New York.

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WE KNEW times were changing when singer Iggy Azalea showed up to a star-studded music awards show in her paparazzi finest: sky-high heels, a sexy mesh top and a pair of zebra-striped leggings.

That’s right. The 24-year-old rapper rocked workout pants. At night. In public. On the red carpet.

While it may seem like a fashion risk, Azalea is one of countless celebrities and women the world over ditching jeans for hi-tech, crazily printed — and often crazily priced — leggings.

While high-end leggings have been on the rise in recent years thanks to popular $100 Lululemon yoga pants, now Lycra is coming out of the locker room and into the spotlight. Women want stretchy looks that work for spin class or a Saturday night out — and they’re willing to pay big money.

Iggy Azalea at the 2015 iHeartRadio Music Awards on March 29, 2015.

Luxury sites like Net-a-Sporter and new dedicated boutiques like celebrity-flanked Bandier in New York City hawk “couture” leggings that can cost upward of $400 and are printed with everything from kale motifs to emojis. According to the NPD Group, a consumer tracking service, leggings are becoming such a force that women’s jeans sales dropped 8 per cent in 2014.

Even high-end designers like Fendi are jumping on the stationary bike, selling $900 leggings to the fit and fabulous.

“I don’t think there’s ever too much to spend [on leggings],” says Jennifer Bandier, founder of the 5-month-old eponymous shop.

“Our clients come back wearing their leggings with heels going out at night,” says Bandier, 46, who herself is sporting knee-high leather boots with a pair of graphite crocodile-print shiny leggings.

Fendi’s $900 leggings. Would you buy them?

Bandier has sold haute yoga pants to everyone from former Miss Universe Olivia Culpo to the Kardashians, who bought so much during their epic three-hour haul, “we had to restock the store after they left,” she says.

In fact, some New Yorkers have given up on non-elastic pants entirely.

“I have basically stopped buying real clothes, and I use my workout clothes now as almost investment pieces. I use them as real outfits,” says Kris Schoels, 31, who has a collection of $150 leggings, which she sports with leather jackets off the treadmill.

Brooke Jaffe, fashion director of women’s ready-to-wear at Bloomingdale’s, says the “cool athletic moment” started two years ago with sneakers. Now, “the printed, fashion workout legging is [the department’s] biggest driver of business.”

“Part of the way people are dressing and identifying themselves is sort of through broadcasting that you have this fitness-related lifestyle,” says Jaffe. “Your identity is, ‘I go to spin class,’ ‘I go to dance class,’ ‘I am a yogi.’ ”

After all, if the Birkin bag is the status symbol for the lady who lunches, a pair of $420 Lucas Hugh leggings is the It item for the lady who lunges — and then goes straight to lunch.

“With the emergence of the boutique fitness community, I think people are spending $30, $40 per workout and they want to feel good about what they’re wearing,” Bandier says.

Plus, what better way to show off your hard work than skin-tight Lycra. As blog The Cut declared after Beyoncé, Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez rocked mostly sheer gowns to the Met Gala last week: “The body is the new outfit. The gym is the new atelier.”

Lily Collins, from gym to lunch.

Loni Edwards, founder of emPowered, a line of cell-charging leather handbags, loves her trendy body-hugging leggings so much she proclaims they’re “better than jeans.”

“They’re more flattering,” says Edwards, 30, who recently picked up three pairs of leggings from Bandier, including a $125 camouflage pair she accessorises with a cashmere sweater. “You get multi-level value for your money.”

But not everyone is buying it.

“People are spending a lot more time in clothing that you used to wear exclusively to the gym,” acknowledges Jayna Maleri, fashion features editor at Lucky magazine. “So it makes sense if you can do it in a high-end way.

“But I feel like even the most expensive $400 legging still looks like a legging. And I would rather not walk around in a legging.”

While it can be hard to justify the $420 price tag behind a pair of futuristic Lucas Hugh leggings created by Hunger Games costume designer Anjhe Mules, Bandier says the technology is worth it. Her shop’s tights boast everything from antibacterial silver thread to special seaming that hits pressure points to increase blood flow.

“With the PrismSport brand, there’s no centre seam, so you’ll never get camel toe,” brags one Bandier sales associate.

With this new couture crop of workout pants, some women are even tossing their once-coveted Lululemon leggings, deeming them too basic and too black.

“If you look like a lemming, it doesn’t make you feel inspired to go work out,” says Whitney

Bella Thorne, following the trend.

Casey, a 30-something media maven, who recently hosted a girls’ weekend where she gave away all her old Lulu pants, which range in price from $80 to $100 and, a few years ago, were the only high-end stretchy game in town.

She now exclusively sports Michi leggings, with mesh inserts that give the tights a lingerie feel.

“There’s so much more individuality when you get dressed now,” says Casey.

“You can’t be in black workout pants anymore,” concurs Stacey Skulnik, 23.

“You’re a huge loser for running around in black gym pants.”

And we wouldn’t want that, would we.

Michi’s mesh-detailed stardust crop leggings.

This story originally appeared on the New York Post