In a good week, Jackie McKeown logs six runs per week, but as both creative and design director for the newly launched activewear brand Literary Sport, she’s been understandably swamped. 

At the onset of New York Fashion Week in September, Literary Sport made its debut with a preview at the Jacqueline Sullivan Gallery. Invitees entered the gallery to behold a tonal selection of merino half-zips, French-milled sports bras, and Japanese cotton-terry hoodies, all set before a sheer rosy veil. 

The Lower Manhattan gallery was also the backdrop for the brand’s first lookbook. In one image, a woman wearing their utilitarian Louise Jacket and a pair of flip-flops sits sprawled in a Gaetano Pesce Queen of Nobody chair. In another, the same model is perched on a Beatrice Bonino stool, pairing their Li Shorts and Anne Long Sleeve Crew with black pumps. Their lookbook presents running shots alongside moments of stillness, celebrating the body as a multi-faceted oeuvre.

Literary Sport is an ode to movement itself. With the active impetus of Alo and the refined elegance of The Row, the brand offers an elevated alternative to exercise apparel. As a veteran stylist, McKeown sought to achieve this by imbuing the line with a ready-to-wear sensibility. “A lot of women’s running wear is quite fitted or the cuts are really feminine,” she explains. Without any running apparel that she liked, she usually opted for menswear instead, but the fit was never quite right. “I think it’s just finding those elements that you love in your day-to-day wardrobe and bringing them into your [workout] apparel.” 

McKeown and her partner Fran Miller were recruited as co-creative directors by founders M. Bechara and Deirdre Matthews, who first discussed creating the line in 2021.

Both avid runners, Matthews and Bechara often discussed running gear (they met when their children attended the same preschool), but found that much of what was on the market didn’t reflect their taste. “I wanted something that was clean and sophisticated, that could fit into my wardrobe—or that kind of somewhat looked like my wardrobe,” Matthews says. “That just wasn’t out there for me.” With her background in wholesale distribution and Bechara’s manufacturing expertise, branching out on their own was an obvious choice. Today, they work out of a studio in Toronto’s Junction neighbourhood.

The ultimate challenge was using performance fabrics to create garments with a distinct fluidity. “We wanted to use fabric that looked and felt like it had movement,” Matthews says. As a result, she and McKeown spent a lot of time studying textiles. “Everything comes from Italy and Japan, in very small mills. It also really lends to the way the clothing looks,” she adds. “It feels very considered because it has been very considered—that’s something that we really labour over.”

There has always been a faction of fashion enthusiasts who believe that a penchant for activewear implies a lack of effort—famously, Karl Lagerfeld compared purchasing sweatpants to admitting defeat. The tides have long shifted, but the white space in workout apparel is evident. For McKeown, creating activewear with a polished aesthetic began with paring things down. “I think it’s just stripping away anything unnecessary,” she explains.

“We’re not trying to compete with really intense running apparel or marathon wear. It’s just things that feel absolutely necessary and not adding any pockets or flair that doesn’t need to be there,” McKeown continues. “It’s just about having it feel like it’s exactly what it needs to be and nothing else.”