As ready-to-wear designers continue to poach elements from the streamlined world of sportswear, a clutch of independent activewear designers are busy flexing their muscles on the specialist exercise scene.

With names such as SoulCycle (New York’s cultish version of spinning, set in a partially candlelit room with motivational mantras), the latest fitness classes, online workouts and boot camps are fashionably niche, as are the brands being flaunted in class.

Take Weargrace, for example, a contemporary yoga label designed and produced in Italy by Karen Joyce, former director of image for Gucci Group. Then there is Bodyism, the fitness and nutritional system founded by husband-and-wife duo James and Christiane Duigan. In addition to its bestselling Clean and Lean Diet book and model following (among them Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Lara Stone), its latest workout collection includes the all-important sports bra. Featuring digital prints, it is stylish enough to wear as a crop-top to any high-impact class.