Sportswear even non-athletes can wear

I have a confession to make. Laugh if you must but I cannot deny it any longer. I was at Shangri-la Mall yesterday, in a shop that tickled my fancy no end and the realization never seemed as real to me as it did then.

It suddenly dawned on me that practically all my life, the desire to take up something or engage in some form of physical activity has always been primarily motivated by the outfit required to carry it out. Perhaps that is a spin-off of child’s play, I really don’t know.

I took up flamenco lessons because I saw a lady dancing it so beautifully and she had a huge red bloom pinned to her hair. I also wanted to wear a big flower in my hair so I did the next best thing – I learned the dance, enrolling in a class the first chance I got. That I actually enjoyed it was a significant bonus. After high school I seriously considered taking up nursing because I totally had fun wearing a nurse’s uniform in one of the school plays I took part in. I liked the whole package of pristine white clothes, immaculately pulled-back hair and the little white hat to top it all off. Reality quickly set in, though, when I remembered how horrified I was and sick to the stomach I felt when I had to cut open with a scalpel the poor frog I brought to Biology class. Never again.

One time I also wanted to be a nun. The habit intrigued me and I always wondered how long it took them to dress up in the morning. I also wanted to know if there was perhaps some secret gadget they used to hold their headgear in place. I had to relinquish that dream to perpetual oblivion, though, when I realized that I was far too romantic and that my future plans always included finding my own prince and living happily ever after. That discovery, of course, set in when I graduated from reading Nancy Drew and the Bobbsey Twins to Sweet Dreams, Danielle Steel, and Judith McNaught

The same held true as far as sports were concerned. There was a time when I wanted to be a tennis player because I so wanted to wear those totally adorable, sexy tennis dresses. Of course I would look totally stupid if I ever attempted to wear one when I cannot even hit the ball across the court to save my life. After that I had a fascination for track suits (this was long before Juicy Couture worked its magic spell in the fashion world) but I felt queasy wearing them because, after all, I was no athlete. I also wanted to take judo lessons because I woke up one day to discover that I was very attracted to the judo pants my brother wore to his martial-arts class and I wanted to lounge around for a whole summer in them. Because I knew myself well enough to guarantee that I would not even last two judo lessons, I satisfied my illusion by simply dreaming up ways to wear them – with a tank top, flip-flops, a fitted cap-sleeved tee, etc. That became enough for me

I am no athlete but I love sports. And I have since learned to accept that although I will never be an athlete I will always be an enthusiastic spectator. That said, I guess you could surmise that it is but the natural order of things that I also enjoy going to sports shops – browsing through racks and racks of sports gear and looking over shelf upon shelf of sports shoes. And my lamentation after every trip to these shops has always been why, oh, why can’t I just wear this wonderful stuff – never mind that I don’t actually play the sport?

There must be thousands of others like me who bemoan the injustice of it all, so much so that all these sporting companies now have what they call their "lifestyle line." A friend of mine (very much like me as far as sports are concerned) asked me what, exactly, a lifestyle line was and I answered that in my opinion, it is a line of clothing, shoes, and accessories created for people like us who, despite our best efforts, can’t do sports and yet still want to wear something sporty. It also gives us non-athletic folks the license to wear athletic stuff and not look stupid

I have always been partial to Adidas, maybe because as a little girl my first rubber shoes were Adidas and I always kinda liked the simple three-striped pattern that is closely and exclusively associated with the brand. Time was when only the performance stuff was available locally and we had to get the more fashionable lifestyle items from Europe or New York

So there I was at Shangri-la Mall and right across Mango and Figaro on the third floor was the nicest Adidas store. I was so happy to chance upon it because this shop carried all the items that fall under the so-called lifestyle category. Such wonderful, wonderful stuff. I fell in love with this big burnt-orange carryall that is just perfect for toting around. I like big bags, especially because I carry half the house plus magazines all the time. It would be great for traveling, too, because it is roomy enough to hold all that you need to be comfortable in a flight. The bag actually came in two colors, the other being olive green, but I decided to get the orange. If you want it you have to go and get it now because the sales clerk said it was the last piece

As I was paying for the bag I looked to my right and there hanging was the cropped judo pants of my dreams. It was so comfy and nice, all white with Japanese characters in red running down the bottom of the left leg. I also saw adorable flip-flops, in both leather and rubber. There were some really nice shoes, too, Radilette slides (based on the 30-year-old adilette), track jackets that are so stylish you almost forget they are functional, short skirts and pink shorts, a grid dress (which was supposedly inspired by the sexy women that accompanied drivers at the grid in the late ’70s), and a judo girl’s top to match the pants

I also saw a raincoat in two colors – a nice greenish blue and a basic brown, a long-sleeved fitted shirt with a sexy, unexpected cutout at the back, casual bags in different styles, sizes, and colors. There was also lots of cool stuff for men – Jabbar low shoes, half-shells low shoes, the W. Rohrl jacket made of cotton, the Sky Hook pants. Attention-grabbing and apparently the most saleable is the Adidas Superstar 35th-anniversary line available in cool, cool colors and designs. I think it’s one of the most decorated shoes of Adidas. Shoes inspired by different cities have logos like "I Love Paris" or "I Love New York," with a colored pattern associated with the city (like green shamrocks for Boston).

Go visit this shop if you haven’t yet. It is compelling, to the say the least. Truth is, it is almost impossible to go there and leave empty-handed. Even for non-sporty types like me, this athletic mecca has the stuff dreams are made of