Making Yogawear Phat

Hip-Hop impresario and urban style don Russell Simmons has been an avid yoga practitioner for years. The creator of wildly successful clothing brands Phat Farm, Argyleculture, and American Classics, Simmons is a fashion authority, and always impeccably dressed. It stands to reason, then, that he would want to look just as good on the mat than off. To this end, Simmons has set his entrepreneurial sights on the yoga industry, and has just signed a deal with Gaiia Enterprises Global Ltd. to develop a comprehensive yoga line called Tantris.
Says Simmons: “After doing yoga, I feel alive and awakened. I want to give people that feeling.”
Word on the street is the line will include both women’s and men’s activewear—good news for the fashion conscious male yogins out there tired of the slim pickins available when it comes to activewear. (Fashion designer Vivienne Tam, who debuted her own yoga line at the 2011 New York’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, only included women’s clothing.) Tantris will also offer yoga accessories, like pillows, mats and malas—everything you need for the yoga lifestyle. The brand is slated to hit department and specialty stores, health clubs, studios and spas this fall, with plans for actual Tantris stores and yoga studios also in the works.