Known for her transformative M/Body workouts, Marnie Alton is a dynamic force in the fitness/wellness industry in the heart of LA. Her workouts combine dance, cardio, strength training and barre work to create empowering workouts and a holistic approach to physical well-being. Recently, she has collaborated with fashion label Pour Les Femmes, an ethical sleepwear company. This exclusive partnership perfectly blends Marnie’s flare for fitness, confidence, and comfort into a stylish pair of pyjamas that embody the above seamlessly.

In celebration of the launch of the pyjamas, I had the pleasure to chat with Marnie about the ins and outs of what its like to create something very personal from scratch with an amazing team!

Hi Marnie! What made you want to collaborate with Pour Les Femmes in the first place? Who reached out first?

So initially, they were clients of the studio. Robin Wright, an actor, and Karen Fowler, her business partner, started Pour Les Femmes. We had created this beautiful hand-painted mural wall in the studio, which I wanted to have as a focus point in the studio, but also wanted to find a creative way to embody collectively the people who came into the space. I conceptualized the design with a local artist, her name’s Kara Green.

Karen and Robin would come to the studio, look at the wall and asked if I would ever want to do a collaboration. They just came up and said it’s such a great idea and such a beautiful design. I love their line and in fact I just went to Joshua Tree and realised, subconsciously, that every day I was wearing Pour Les Femmes. I love what they stand for as well. And it just happened that the pyjamas coincided with the 10-year anniversary of my company, so it just ended up being really symbolic.”

What were some of the biggest challenges that you faced whilst bringing out the pyjamas, or throughout the whole process, if you faced any?

Not really any! And that’s maybe boring, but it was really seamless. I think what might have been a more interesting challenge or lesson that I faced initially was that when we started talking about it, I was a relatively new business owner and so it felt like such a big deal that this great brand wanted to do this, and these wonderful women wanted to get behind it! And then it didn’t happen, that was disappointing for me.

There was no reason, they weren’t travelling or anything, they were doing other things and I remember thinking ‘oh they realised it was a bad idea or they didn’t really like it’, whatever ridiculous narrative we get into our heads when we have an expectation, and it falls through! So that was quite emotionally challenging. I wasn’t thinking that they would be done beautifully and seamlessly for everyone at exactly the right time, just later than I thought.

So, I think that’s an interesting lesson, we all have current things where we have expectations of what life is supposed to be like in the moment and we typically align a time that we think we have to make it happen, but I have to remember that’s not accurate and that the timeline in your head isn’t even necessarily the best one. I have this thing I love to say where ‘when nothing is certain, anything is possible’. If I had been so certain it happened the way I was certain it should, it wouldn’t have been as good as it was! You just have to let yourself be uncomfortable and uncertain for a minute.

So how did you come to a decision on a final design for the pyjamas?

So, I had wanted something that visually had, from afar, a more graphic vibe. I wanted something that represented the class and the movement that we did. I’m fascinated by the human body and how we are the same, yet so vastly different. I have screenshots and quotes in my phone and pictures of bodies, legs, and arms and so I guess it was an accumulation of that, and then wanting it to be our specific shapes.

Everything that was put into the design was very organically intimate and connected. It was important to me that it felt representative and universal. We have an extremely diverse client base, so how do we create this uniform, graphic shape while still being representative of different women? So, we made sure all the skin tones were not all the same and everything else we just left, we didn’t put a lot of details on like eyes and noses.

The coolest part to me is that we hand-painted them onto the mural wall, so Kara stencilled them all and then we basically filled it in. Some had slightly longer or shorter torsos, one girl looked slightly pregnant! I was like ‘oh wow, by happy accident we were just kind of putting our hearts into it and doing it together’. We worked hard on the pyjamas when we recreated the design to try and embody all that. They’re a bit more uniform, just by nature of having to mass produce, but we were really conscious of that. I think as women we are far too often bombarded with images that don’t feel like they look like us, so I did whatever I could do to consciously not contribute to that narrative.

Would you want to do any further collaborations, clothing wise, with either Pour Les Femmes or anyone else in the future?

Yeah. We did start discussions with a brand that didn’t end up happening, just again circumstantial at the time. I live in these clothes; I need something that feels like it stays. I need something that makes me feel confident but that’s accessible and simple, but that I feel good in. So, I feel like there’s a lot of little ways that I would love to bring to that. I feel like there’s a cool way to do it with a classy vibe, so yes!

Did you have a strong focus on sustainability measures when you were manufacturing the pyjamas/through any stage of the process?

Yes. that’s one of the reasons that I was so drawn to them, that’s their, I guess, foundational ethos. It’s part of why their products are on the higher price point level. It’s because all the way down the line, they really base the idea on championing women. The way that they are produced, the way that they communicate, the type of clothing and fabric they use from every single level, it’s both for Mother Earth and for the women involved at every level of the process. I have a real problem with fast fashion.

It’s very challenging for me to know the statistics of what it’s doing to the earth and to participate in any capacity. I’m not actually personally like a fashion guru type of person; I am almost morally challenged by it. Because I feel in some ways there is such artistry towards it, and in some ways its so confining. We worked hard to bring our price point of these pyjamas. We chose to basically close our margins quite significantly, and they did that for me as well because I wanted these to feel more accessible. So, the product we’ve done with them is the exact same product as all their others in terms of quality. I know now intimately that; their price point is that way because it trickles down through their entire process.

Would you ever consider maybe starting a brand of your own or starting to produce something in tow with your fitness company?

You know, that’s a good question. It’s funny because I feel like I’m contradicting myself when I say I’m not big into fashion. But, when it came to being in the environment of a studio, either as a dancer or teaching, I’ve always pushed it a bit. It’s been something that clients have noticed. I’ve never been the matching set girl; I’ve always incorporated interesting or different ideas to it. Even if it’s just the jewellery you’re wearing or the leg warmers. I think for me, that was just part of the fact that when you’re in the studio, you’ve got mirrors all around you and you’re staring at everyone else, but also accidentally at yourself. That made it fun for me like ‘ooh, what am I going to wear?’.

So, I have always been fascinated by that concept because I do see many cool opportunities there. That being said, I don’t know how much interest I have in the concept of manufacturing or creating all that. I don’t think, at least in this point in my life and our business, we don’t have the infrastructure to be able to do it in a way that I feel good about. I think there’s lots of opportunity to do collaborations and to work with labels that already have a system in place that they’ve spent years creating.

If you could choose one part of the whole process that was your favourite, which would it be?

I just love all of it! Okay, my absolute favourite was looking at the page done. When it was after all our meetings and the launch day, seeing a size sell out I was like ‘oh my god’, or seeing people send photos in them, the actual bringing it to life and seeing it real, I was like a little kid on that day. It was so representational of so much and we have few things in our lives, few moments where we’re like, ‘oh wow’. You know, all these people came together to do this, and it just felt so connecting to myself and my work and disappointments. Also seeing it bring other people happiness, that really was the very best part.

What’s the biggest thing that you learnt from the whole process?

That there is no wrong or right answer. I love the concept that there are problems, and then there are dilemmas. Two very different things, a problem is something that needs to be solved and it has a solution, but I didn’t have to deal with that! They already had the solutions. But then a lot of the creative process, you get to a point where you’re making all these creative choices that are just dilemmas, you narrow it down to where both options are good, and maybe you learn through the process that maybe a different choice would be more in line with the outcome that we wanted.

But you can’t get caught or get too wound up with trying to anticipate the entire result right up to the end, you really have to be in the moment, narrow it down to where it’s just a dilemma and then either as a team or individually, make a decision and go with your gut, and I think the more you can let that go once the decision is made, lean into it.

To check out Marnie's incredible collaboration with Pour Les Femme visit pourlesfemmes.com/pages/marnie-alton

In addition you can stay connected to Marnie's world by visiting www.mbodybymarniealton.com