Lifestyle brand Ghost Flower has launched a female activewear collection developed by a team of experts in Eastern medicine, featuring a self-care map for wellness and self-healing.
Since 2018, Ghost Flower has created activewear with what it calls a ‘deeper self-healing purpose’. The high-performance active clothing collection is based on Chinese Medicine with designs incorporating the body’s natural energy channels and acupressure points and including a sewn-in self-care map promoting wellness and empowering women.
The company’s activewear designs feature the five Chinese elements – water, wood, fire, earth, and metal – with each element representing its own associated emotional and physical transformative energy, which correspond to nature’s cycles of time and matter, and different times of day and seasons. Ghost Flower has included each element’s aspirational tag inside each piece of clothing to remind the wearer of the type of energy this element can inspire when getting dressed and throughout the day.
Ghost Flower’s team of experts in Eastern medicine and acupressure, as well as in disciplines of dance, stretch, yoga, Pilates, and body movement, worked closely with the brand’s fashion designer and pattern maker in developing an activewear collection for women focused on self-healing and empowerment.
In addition to its activewear, Ghost Flower provides a ‘holistic approach’ through a synergistic movement practice that shows its customers how to use the clothes effectively, including movement classes live and online, which also feature tutorials on acupressure and self-care.
“Rooted in Chinese medicine, Ghost Flower is the world’s first activewear company to have your body’s energy network discreetly woven into the designs,” says Susie Peebler, co-founder and CEO of Ghost Flower. “No one in our industry is offering any kind of self-education tools simply by wearing the clothes. The seams track your energy meridians, and our logos represent key acupressure points. This provides a wearable roadmap of where to stretch, roll, and massage to significantly increase your health, performance, and vitality.”
She continues: “The goal is to empower women to understand how and where to optimise their bodies’ energy network, so their Qi (energy) can flow freely, and they can enjoy their best, most vibrant health. Most people don’t realise the full extent of their own, innate self-healing system.”
Ghost Flower didn’t emerge from the fashion world, which also sets it apart from competing activewear companies, according to Peebler.
“Most activewear companies are trying to compete on style or technical fabrics alone,” she says. “We’re changing the story. Yes, we can compete on style and technical fabric, but each design has a much deeper purpose, based on health and wellness. Our inspiration was to create designs that incorporated the traditional Chinese medicine meridians and acupressure points combined with the west’s modern understanding of fascia and movement to show women how to achieve their most vibrant health. This vision required a unique team. We wanted to elevate activewear to a new level in creating designs with purpose and meaning to one’s overall health and wellbeing. The world doesn’t need just another pair of yoga pants.”
Bonnie Crotzer, a co-founder of Ghost Flower, is an expert in fascia and resistive stretching along the energy channels, and Peebler says her work has been essential for helping the Ghost Flower audience to understand and appreciate the value of Chinese medicine.
Peebler also singles out the key contributions of Ghost Flower’s chief scientist, Dr Daniel Keown, who is a classically western-trained doctor as well as a practising acupuncturist. According to Peebler, Keown was one of the first to explain Chinese meridians as energy channels that flow along fascial planes, the same planes that western surgeons use for keyhole surgery and that are outlined in every anatomical textbook.
“By creating this activewear, you’re bypassing the traditional medical community and taking the knowledge straight to the people,” Keown says.
Importance of self-care
In these troubling and stressful times in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, women are seeking more than ever wellness and comfort wherever they can find it, even in the clothes they wear. Peebler says that in the past couple of months since the outbreak, the company has experienced an increased interest on its website for its message of empowering women through self-care.
“Many brands have been reaching out to us for collaborations, and for Bonnie to host and teach live educational events,” she says. “We’ve adapted by providing our customers with information on which acupressure points to press to directly boost their immunity. Our emails, videos, and IGTV demonstrate exactly how and where to press. Also, we did special videos, blogs, and IGTV demonstrations on recipes and the types of foods and herbs that most benefit the immune system.”
Peebler adds that Crotzer has also recently hosted panel discussions and many stretch and acupressure workshops on IGTV, which have been popular and have also boosted the company’s Instagram following and overall social media presence.
The company is also offering its customers free shipping and returns, using the code, Covid-19, during the crisis.
Features of the collection
Key benefits of the Ghost Flower activewear collection reportedly include:
On the outside (tangible benefits):
•Activewear designs with a deeper purpose (your health and awareness).
•Naturally flattering designs: vertical lines, which are said to be your energy channels, make your legs appear taller and slimmer, and accentuate muscle definition.
•Luxurious, smoothing fabrics that erase any signs of cellulite, making the legs look airbrushed. These include no see-through materials and are cut and fit for performance.
•A selection of fabrics and designs for either technical performance or comfort (four-way compression, space dye, and seamless).
•Popular, edgy styles such as onesies with cut-outs, which are performant, stylish, and can be featured on Instagram and other social media.
•Rich colours and prints that pertain to each Chinese element’s season and energy.
•Aspirational element mantras and affirmations inside each item to remind the wearer of the positive energy they are channelling.
On the inside (intangible benefits):
•Feeling of empowerment that comes from knowing which acupressure points to press to self-heal, and where and how to stretch to improve athletic performance, recover from tough workouts quickly, and upgrade the wearer’s overall health and vitality.
•Knowledge of how to address many common health ailments from immunity to constipation, bloating, PMS, headaches, and beyond.
•Knowledge of how to stretch so your fascia and muscles are springy, and your flexibility is dramatically increased.
•Online education resources, videos, and classes within Instagram and Ghost Flower’s website.
•A community of like-minded health, wellness, and fitness advocates.
Peebler says the idea of Ghost Flower came out of her yoga practice, which she began 17 years ago to recover from a serious back injury.
“Bonnie introduced me to resistance stretching, in which you stretch the muscles along a specific Chinese meridian to increase flexibility and strength, while also upgrading the organ associated with that meridian,” she recalls. “I began to integrate resistive stretching into my yoga practice, but I needed visual cues on my leggings to help me locate the meridians.”
Peebler explains that she used Magic Markers to draw lines on her leggings, and that was the original inspiration to launch her activewear line that would fuse fashion, science, and movement.
She adds that Ghost Flower appeals to the promising intersection of yoga, health, wellness, and alternative medicine, which are some of the fastest-growing industries in the world.
The company’s year-over-year online growth is approaching an impressive 200%, with low product returns of under 11%, compared to the industry average of 20%, and its average discounts have dropped from 30% to less than 10%.
Next steps
According to Allied Market Research, the global activewear industry was valued at US$300bn in 2018 and is expected to reach nearly US$547bn by 2024. This was before Covid-19, but Peebler feels Ghost Flower is well-positioned to meet the challenge through being primarily an online business.
That said, the business recently completed its first large-scale wholesale co-brand with the Suzanne Somers Company.
Ghost Flower’s headquarters is in Houston, Texas, but its activewear is manufactured in the Los Angeles area.
“Counter to fast workout fashion, Ghost Flower cares about the effects of this industry,” Peebler says. “Our activewear is made in LA and made to last. Created using fine fabrics from Italy or, in the case of seamless fabrics, woven right in LA, we ensure that our leggings hold up to the most intense workouts. We want our leggings to be a staple in every woman’s drawer: ones that she trusts to perform and be durable, making less waste over time.”
Looking ahead, Peebler says Ghost Flower is planning to partner with complementary product vendors, offer subscriptions, training, videos, and certifications, and eventually open branded company spas and retreat centres.
Source: https://www.wtin.com