What to wear for yoga and acroyoga

Illustration generated with AI

You can practise yoga in almost anything. Acroyoga is less forgiving. When you are balanced on someone's feet, or holding a partner above you, a shirt that slides over your face or a waistband that digs in stops being a detail. The right clothes are the ones you stop noticing.

This guide covers what we look for in pants and tops for both practices, and why.

What the two practices ask of your clothes

In a yoga class you move through a wide range of positions: deep squats, forward folds, twists, the occasional inversion. Your clothes need to stretch or give way at the hips and knees, stay in place when you bend forward, and let air through when you warm up.

In acroyoga you do all of that, and you also share your weight with another person. The base lies on their back and supports the flyer on their feet and hands. The flyer spends a lot of time horizontal or upside down. Both need clothing that grips a little rather than slides, does not ride up, and has nothing sharp or bulky that could press into a partner.

Pants: room where you bend

The single most important piece is the pants.

Harem and drop-crotch pants are the classic choice, and for good reason. On our Aladdin pants the crotch sits closer to the knee than the hip. That extra cloth means you can squat, kneel or sit cross-legged without the seam pulling. It also means nothing is tight across the hips when you open into a wide-legged pose.

Straight or tapered yoga pants suit people who prefer less cloth around the legs. Look for a cut that is loose through the thigh and narrows at the calf. Some of ours are made for yoga, martial arts and acrobatics, with wide openings at the calves so the fabric does not bunch when you bend your knees.

Length matters for inversions. A full-length pant can slide down your legs when you are upside down. A 7/8 length, ending above the ankle, stays where it is and keeps your feet clear for gripping a partner's hands or hips.

Waistbands. Most of our pants close with an elastic waist, a drawstring, or both. Elastic keeps them in place without adjustment. A drawstring lets you set the tension exactly, which matters more in acroyoga, where a loose waist can slip when you are flying. Tie the knot flat and tuck it in so it does not press into your partner.

Pockets are useful on the way to and from class, less so during it. Empty them before an acro session.

For more on the shapes and cuts of harem pants in particular, see our guide to choosing harem pants.

Tops: stay put, stay cool

For a regular yoga class, almost any light top works. A loose vest or tank lets your arms and shoulders move and lets heat escape.

For acroyoga, two things change.

First, the top must not fall over your head. A loose, sleeveless top is comfortable for the base, who spends most of the session lying down. For the flyer, a closer cut or a top that can be tucked into a high waistband is better, because a flyer upside down in a loose shirt quickly has a face full of cloth.

Second, think about grip. Bare skin and cotton both give a partner's feet something to hold. Slippery synthetic fabric makes balancing harder for both of you.

Our tops and tanks include sleeveless cuts, crop tops that sit above the waistband, and light shirts with sliced sides that let air through. A crop top worn with high-waisted pants is a good combination for flyers.

The cloth

Cotton is the most common fabric in our clothing, and it suits both practices. It breathes, it takes sweat without feeling wet against the skin for long, and it gives a partner's feet a little grip.

Some of our pants are made in hemp and cotton, often 55% hemp and 45% cotton. Hemp gives the cloth more body and makes it hard-wearing, which matters for pants that spend time on the floor.

Many of our tops are hand block printed, pressed one carved wooden block at a time.

Sizing

Much of our yoga clothing is one size, cut loose and held with elastic or a drawstring. Where a piece comes in sizes, the product page lists them, with measurements where we have them. When in doubt between two sizes for acroyoga, choose the one that fits closer: extra cloth is comfortable in a class, but gets in the way when two bodies are working together.

A simple starting set

If you are putting together clothes for your first acro jam, start with:

• one pair of drop-crotch or 7/8 pants with a drawstring,
• one sleeveless top for basing,
• one crop top or close-cut top for flying.

Then add what you find you need. Browse our harem and yoga pants and tops and tanks to see what we have now.