The first time I went to reformer Pilates, I wore black Lululemon Aligns and a sports bra I’d had since 2019.
Halfway through the class, mid-footwork, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirrored wall. The leggings had gone slightly see-through under the springs’ tension. The sports bra was riding up. My pony was sliding out. I spent the rest of the class adjusting things instead of breathing into my pelvic floor like the instructor kept telling me to.
I left embarrassed and slightly furious. Not at the leggings exactly. More at the fact that I’d spent $128 on them and they still couldn’t handle a 50 minute class on a piece of equipment Joseph Pilates invented in 1923.
So I went looking. And eventually I landed on Wiskii Active, a brand a Pilates instructor I follow on Instagram kept tagging in her workout photos.
I bought four pieces. I wore them to reformer Pilates classes for six weeks. Here’s what actually held up.
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Why Pilates Outfits Are Suddenly a Whole Thing
Reformer Pilates is having a moment. Not a small one. A “this is now a personality” moment.
According to the 2025 ClassPass Look Back Report, Pilates was the most-booked workout globally for the third year in a row in 2025, with a 66 percent jump in reservations from the year before. The platform recorded 15 million Pilates bookings worldwide. Reformer specifically led the surge.
Heather Andersen, co-founder of New York Pilates, told PureWow that “Pilates has always resonated. What’s changed is its accessibility and visibility.”
She’s right, but visibility cuts both ways. When everyone in your class has perfect outfits and is filming reels for Instagram, the pressure to not look like you wandered out of a 2018 yoga class is real. The “Pilates princess” aesthetic has become its own genre. Soft pastels. Coordinated sets. Squat-proof leggings. Bras that work as tops.
I’m not above admitting I bought new clothes partly because I felt out of place. The other reason was practical. Reformer Pilates is hard on activewear. The carriage moves. You’re constantly in positions that test your clothes. Leggings that pass the “regular gym” test fail spectacularly under reformer conditions.
What I Actually Bought
I wanted a fair test, so I ordered four pieces across different categories:
- The Color Block Sports Bra in a muted sage and cream colorway
- The 7/8 High-Waist Madano Legging in Almond Butter
- The Crisscross Bra Tank
- The Sweetheart Bra in a soft pink
Total cost was a little over $200 with a promo code I found. Comparable to what I’d spend on a single matching set from Lululemon. The four pieces gave me enough rotation to wear something Wiskii to four different classes a week.
A note on sizing because this matters. I’m 5’5″, weigh around 135, and normally wear a small in Lululemon and a medium in most other brands. I read several reviews before ordering, including a detailed review from Glamour and Gains where the reviewer mentioned Wiskii sometimes runs small. I ordered a small in everything. The fit was right. If I’d ordered my usual medium, the leggings would have been loose at the waist and the bras would have lacked support.
The Leggings Survived
I’ll start with the most important thing because this is where my Lululemon failed me.
The Madano leggings did not go see-through. Not in mountain climbers, not in the splits on the reformer, not in pelvic curl, not under any of the lighting conditions reformer studios seem to favor. The fabric is dense without being thick. There’s compression but not the kind that cuts off circulation.
The seam down the back is flat. This sounds minor. It is not minor. A bad center-back seam on Pilates leggings means you can see the seam every time you bend over, and you bend over constantly in Pilates.
The waistband is high enough that the bottom of my sports bra doesn’t fight with the top of the leggings, which is a war I’ve fought with cheaper leggings before and lost.
What I didn’t love. The pocket on the side is real but small. My iPhone 14 just barely fits if I really push it. If you carry a phone in your leggings, get a different pair. Also, the fabric pills slightly if you don’t wash them inside out. I learned this after the third wash. The pilling isn’t dramatic and it stopped once I switched to gentle cycle, but it’s worth knowing.
The Sports Bras Actually Supported Me
I am not large chested. 34B on a generous day. But I’ve worn enough bad sports bras to know that “low impact” support is its own skill, and a lot of brands get it wrong by going so minimal that you get no support at all.
The Color Block Sports Bra has removable pads, which I removed. The compression is real without being painful. During Hundreds, when I was holding my legs at 45 degrees and pulsing my arms next to my hips for what felt like an eternity, the bra didn’t shift. No riding up. No digging in. No straps trying to slide off my shoulders.
The Crisscross Bra Tank is the piece I’d buy in three colors if I could justify it. It’s a bra and a tank fused together, which means no layering issue with a sports bra under a separate top. The crisscross back is also genuinely flattering, which is not a thing I usually care about in workout clothes but somehow do when there are mirrors involved.
The Sweetheart Bra is pretty. It’s the right amount of soft and structured. I’ve worn it to reformer twice and to a low-impact strength class once. It works for all three.
One real warning. The pink colorway in some Wiskii pieces runs slightly sheer when wet. A reformer Pilates instructor mentioned this in a Trustpilot review, saying she had to wear nude underwear under one specific pink set. Mine didn’t have this problem with the sweetheart bra, but if you’re getting a light pink piece, throw it on over nude undergarments first and check before wearing it out.
Where I’m Picking Sides
I want to be direct about this part because too many reviews refuse to take a position.
For reformer Pilates specifically, Wiskii Active is better than Lululemon.
There. I said it.
Here’s the actual reasoning, not just brand opinion. Lululemon Aligns are designed for yoga and low-impact movement. The Nulu fabric they use is buttery and beautiful and famously thin. That thinness is the problem. Under reformer tension, where you’re constantly stretching the fabric in directions it wasn’t designed for, Aligns fail the sheerness test more often than they pass it.
Wiskii’s Madano fabric is denser. The 70 percent nylon and 30 percent spandex blend has the structure that reformer demands. I’m not saying Wiskii is a better brand overall, because Lululemon does plenty of things well and their customer service genuinely is better. I’m saying for this specific workout, the fabric choice favors Wiskii.
Where Wiskii wins outright is the aesthetic. The retro-feminine vibe with the gold logos and scallop details is just more interesting than the minimalist black-or-beige look that most premium activewear brands have converged on. Pilates studios are colorful, mirrored, well-lit places. Showing up in soft sage or almond butter or dusty pink feels right in a way that all-black feels wrong.
What Wiskii Doesn’t Do Well
I’d be lying if I said the experience was flawless.
Shipping took eleven days. Wiskii ships from China to North America, which the brand is fairly transparent about. If you need something for a class next Tuesday, this is not the brand to order from.
The return process is more complicated than domestic brands. I didn’t have to return anything, but I read enough Trustpilot reviews to know it’s not seamless. If you’re between sizes and want to do the “order both and return one” thing that’s standard with Lululemon, factor in shipping cost and time.
Customer service reviews are mixed. Most are positive. Some are not. One Trustpilot reviewer mentioned pilling issues that took weeks to resolve. I haven’t dealt with their support myself so I can’t speak to it directly, but it’s worth knowing it exists as a possible friction point.
The pricing is high enough that this isn’t a budget alternative. A typical legging is in the $60-80 range, and matching sets land closer to $100-130. Comparable to mid-tier Lululemon. Cheaper than Alo. More expensive than Old Navy Active or Aerie.
Should You Buy Wiskii for Reformer Pilates
Yes, if your priorities are:
- Leggings that don’t go see-through under reformer tension
- A matching aesthetic that fits the Pilates studio vibe
- Sports bras that work as tops
- Pieces that genuinely look good in mirror selfies and Instagram stories
No, if:
- You need something this week
- You hate dealing with international shipping or returns
- You prefer the minimalist Lululemon-Alo-Vuori aesthetic over the feminine retro one
- Your budget is under $50 per piece
I’m planning to keep buying Wiskii for Pilates specifically. I’m not abandoning Lululemon entirely. The Aligns still work fine for yoga and rest day errands. They just stopped working for the workout I do most.
If you want to take a look at what they have right now, this is the page I sent to two friends already this month. Both of them ordered. Both of them texted me after their first class to say their leggings finally stopped misbehaving.
For a workout that’s apparently going to be a permanent fixture in our lives, that feels like a worthwhile upgrade.