BELOFORTE Leggings Can Be Worn From the Gym to the Dance Floor
Written By: Ashlee Polarek
Photographed By: Maxx Buchanan
BELOFORTE makes athletic wear that functions just as well as it photographs. The Athleisure brand focuses on creating clothes that not only work well in the gym, but make you feel beautiful and sexy while you do it, even if you’re covered in sweat. Whitney Quaresma and Kevin Dorey founded the brand together when they realized the market needed something more.
Quaresma is no stranger to how athletic wear should fit and feel while working hard, but she wanted something more than basic running shorts and tanks tops. Pulling inspiration from high fashion, she teamed up with businessman Dorey to create the BELOFORTE brand so many have come to love.
The duo designs the clothes together striving to source materials that are sustainable and easy on the environment, all while staying in tune and ahead of trends. Some of their designs include the Penelope Lace-up Legging, a nylon and spandex blend that features a mesh peekaboo on the thighs, which circles around to reveal laced-up mesh that elongates the legs—it’s something that looks good on the gym and the dance floor.
Patterns and cuts are designed specifically to help make wearers look and feel their best because not everyone is trying to set personal records in 100-meter races, and some people just want to look cute as they hit the stationary bike. The fabric selected usually has a pattern or texture, setting it apart from the smooth, form-fitted fabric people are used to. Many of the garments are designed to shape the body or create the illusion of shape, like giving a lift in the booty or a fuller bust.
Although the brand strives to put out garments that are sexy, fashionable and beautiful, they understand that the items need to hold up in workouts. The 2017 fall line introduces a new fabric that is completely opaque but doesn’t wear hot, and doesn’t impede movement all while giving support. The brand makes it easy to wear gorgeous pieces that can easily translate to a post workout dinner with friends where you still look stylish.BELOFORTE has a sexy approach to Athleisure, and Dorey says, “We love a confident woman that isn’t afraid to wear things the way that she wants to wear them or how she wants to wear them.”
What’s in a Name? BELOFORTE is a combination of two Portuguese words, “belo” meaning beautiful and “forte” meaning strong. A mantra the founders hope women who wear the brand adopt.
Made in LA: BELOFORTE tries to keep production and fabric sourcing domestic. In an attempt to keep pollution and environmental damage to a minimum, they sew everything in Los Angeles, giving them the ability to head in and check on quality control whenever they like.
Change of Heart: Dorey was an engineer building roads and bridges before he and Quaresma created BELOFORTE. A pretty big shift, don’t you think?
BELOFORTE
1519 6th St, Ste 508
Santa Monica, CA 90401
310.904.6161
www.belo-forte.com
These Local Leggings Need to be Your Next Purchase
Ashlee is a freelance writer with a focus on travel, lifestyle and food. After obtaining her degree in Journalism she took the world by storm teaching in South Korea and giving motivation speeches across the United States. She can often be found on road-trips, plane rides and cooking up her favorite meal from her most recent travels. The anti-homebody loves a good hike, good book and a day spent with friends.
