First came the leggings.
Then came the matching sets, the $200 sports bras, the Pilates-to-coffee uniform and the realisation that activewear didn’t necessarily need to be worn while exercising at all. Over the past decade, performance clothing has transformed from a functional category into one of fashion’s most lucrative and influential wardrobes.
Now, the next evolution may be happening somewhere you can’t see.
In the fabric itself.
As consumers become increasingly conscious of what they put on their bodies – from skin care ingredients to the fibres touching their skin – fashion is beginning to apply the same scrutiny to activewear. Logical, given that few clothes spend as much time pressed against the body, or accompany us through such intense periods of heat, sweat and movement.
The question is no longer simply whether your leggings are flattering, sculpting or sweat-wicking.
It’s: what exactly are they made from?
That query sits at the heart of Noht, a new Australian performance apparel label with a decidedly different approach to the traditional activewear formula.
The brand has spent more than two years developing a patent-pending textile made from 49 per cent seaweed-enriched cellulose, 44 per cent bio-nylon and seven per cent bio-elastane. It replaces the conventional reliance on petroleum-derived materials with bio-based alternatives, while still delivering the compression, stretch, moisture management and recovery expected from technical performance clothing.
It sounds like a very 2026 idea: take something we’ve accepted as standard and ask whether it still makes sense.
And the shift is happening at an interesting moment for fashion.
The wellness industry has spent years teaching us to interrogate ingredients. We know to look for retinol and niacinamide in skincare, probiotics in supplements and protein on our breakfast labels. The language of wellness has become increasingly ingredient-led.
Our wardrobes, by comparison, have been slower to catch up.
Activewear has traditionally sold us the result. The streamlined silhouette, the sculpting effect, the ability to move, sweat and stretch. The material itself has largely remained invisible.
But a new generation of consumers is beginning to see fabric as part of the wellness conversation.
Noht is an early entrant into that territory.
Its unexpected hero is seaweed, incorporated into the cellulose fibre rather than simply added as a topical treatment. The choice feels particularly resonant given how familiar marine ingredients have become in beauty, where seaweed and algae have long occupied a premium position in formulations.
According to the brand, independent testing of its seaweed-enriched cellulose fibre demonstrated antioxidant activity, neutralising 88 per cent of free radicals within 120 minutes and retaining the majority of that activity after 50 washes. The cellulose component is also certified to biodegrade at fibre level in 41 days.
But this isn’t an attempt to turn a pair of leggings into skin care. And that’s an important distinction.
Noht’s more interesting proposition is that material innovation itself is becoming a fashion proposition.
The debut collection keeps the visual language restrained. There are four pieces – a sports bra, tank, bike shorts and leggings – in a monochrome palette, with seamless construction and sculpted, second-skin silhouettes. There is nothing particularly “eco” about the way they look. Which might perhaps, be the point.
Sustainable fashion has often been associated with a particular aesthetic. Natural colours, relaxed shapes, visible texture, a sense of rustic virtue. The new generation of bio-based fashion is taking a different approach. The ambition isn’t necessarily to make clothing look sustainable. It’s to make the underlying technology more considered while keeping the final product desirable.
In activewear, that could prove particularly significant.
The category has become one of fashion’s great laboratories for innovation because consumers expect so much from these clothes. They need to stretch without losing their shape, move without restriction, manage moisture and survive repeated washing – all while looking good enough to wear far beyond the studio.
Noht’s answer is to tackle that challenge at fibre level.
Its collection contains no PFAS, BPA or phthalates, while its fibres carry OEKO-TEX Standard 100 Class I certification. The brand has also dermatologically tested the garments, receiving an Excellent rating.
The story behind the label makes the material question even more personal.
Co-founder Timothy Turner-Sutton began exploring an alternative after his wife, Nadine, was recovering from a serious illness. When she became strong enough to exercise again, Turner-Sutton – who has a background in fashion and textiles – was struck by the fact that the supportive activewear available to her relied on petroleum-derived synthetics against skin that had spent years healing.
What began as a question about what she should wear became a question about what an entire industry had normalised.
More than two years later, that question has become Noht.
“We spent two years trying to answer one question,” Turner-Sutton says. “What should touch your skin when you move?”
It is a question that feels bigger than one new label.
Because if the first era of activewear was about performance, and the second was about fashion, the next may well be about materials.
We already scrutinise the ingredients in our moisturiser. We know what we’re putting into our morning smoothie. Increasingly, we want to know what we’re sleeping in, exercising in and wearing against our skin for eight hours a day.
The humble legging is suddenly part of that conversation.
And perhaps the most interesting thing about Noht isn’t that it has made an activewear collection from seaweed-derived fibres.
It’s that it has arrived at a moment when we’re finally starting to ask why our clothes couldn’t be held to the same standards as everything else we put on our bodies.
