Journal / Beginners
What to wear to Pilates
The kit list is short, and getting it wrong mostly just means a slightly embarrassing first class, not a wasted one.
Pilates does not need much equipment from you personally, which is part of its appeal, but the little it does need is worth getting right before your first class rather than during it.
Fitted beats baggy
Your instructor needs to see your alignment: the line of your spine, the angle of a knee, whether your shoulders are creeping up towards your ears. Baggy clothing hides all of that. It also has a habit of betraying you physically. A loose t-shirt will fall over your head the first time you go into an inversion, which is memorable for everyone except you.
Feet, jewellery, hair
Grip socks are usually required rather than optional, and most studios sell them at reception if you turn up without a pair. This is not a fashion choice: bare feet slip on the equipment’s upholstery, and shared socks are a hygiene problem nobody wants to think about too hard. Shoes stay off entirely, on the mat and on the machines.
Grip socks are not really about grip. They are about not putting bare feet where a stranger’s bare feet were an hour before.
Take jewellery off before you start, particularly rings and long necklaces, which catch on straps and springs in ways that are more annoying than dangerous but still worth avoiding. Long hair goes up. A ponytail that keeps falling in your face during a roll-down is a distraction you do not need in your first class.
The small courtesies
Leave the perfume at home, or keep it light. You will be close to other people and to equipment other people will use straight after you, and strong scent lingers on shared padding in a way that is unfair to the next class. Fitted, sock covered feet, hair up, minimal metal. You will look exactly like everyone else in the room, which is the point.