There is a lot more to David Gandy Wellwear than it seems at first sight. The range – filled with casuals such as soft sweatshirts, pyjamas and loungewear – champions comfort, but founder David Gandy and his team have taken this idea one step further and are building a brand around the idea that clothes have the potential to improve our mindset and how we feel.

In fact, they envision an entirely new category of clothing that combines wardrobe with wellbeing, and in doing so have created possibly the easiest form of self-care, which simply involves getting dressed.

This idea relies a lot on nifty technical treatments to the natural fabrics such as Wellwear Care used in the brand’s pyjamas – the treatment is produced from aloe vera plant extract, which aids wound recovery and has anti-inflammatory properties. There is also a new collection of tonal clothes based on colour psychology concepts, and swimwear made from fabric that blocks out UVA and UVB rays.

And if you’re tempted to think this new concept is just an attempt to join in with trendy wellness movements, then consider Gandy’s other pursuits – he is a lifelong sportsman, has been an ambassador for Vitabiotics (health supplements) for six years now, and was a fashion collaborator with Marks & Spencer for eight years.

The last, Gandy says, shaped his appreciation for fabric: ‘It was an education to me, particularly in the importance of comfort. People don’t quite realise the extent to which comfort and fabric softness can put you in a positive frame of mind.’

Ultimately, Gandy’s desire to explore innovative material technologies prompted him to move forwards, and this is realised in one of the brand’s newest collections, Wellwear Restore. It uses a special material woven with bioceramic polyester to absorb body heat and reflect it back to the wearer as far infrared rays (FIR). This, in turn, encourages the muscles to relax and increases blood flow to the area, aiding recovery after, say, a heavy workout. The idea came to Gandy after he sustained a shoulder injury common to regular gym-goers. Rather than fixing it with surgery, he opted for physiotherapy and far infrared radiation treatment, which laid the groundwork for a similar concept in the Wellwear Restore collection.

‘One of the biggest things I learned is that restoring is almost as important as the training,’ he says. ‘What an incredible idea, that after training you could be wearing ridiculously soft and relaxed sweat sets that are absorbing heat and then pushing it back into your muscles.’

Gandy is also conscious of Wellwear’s environmental impact: ‘We’ve tried to use organic or BCI (Better Cotton Initiative) cotton. In swimwear, you’re a bit limited to polymers or man made fibres. They can be recycled, but you also have the problem that it could take over a century for them to break down. But we found technology that enhances biodegradability, so it’ll break down in just a couple of years. We’re using this in our swimwear to try and break the cycle.’

This engagement with the issues that fashion will face in the coming years, and an awareness of what matters to individuals now, sets David Gandy Wellwear apart from similar ventures.

So, what does living well mean to Gandy? ‘I think it’s a good balance between being healthy, and still enjoying life and not stretching yourself too much. That goes for training, eating and everything else – all in moderation. When something is not in moderation, that’s when problems can start and you can overtrain and you can over or undereat, and then you’re obsessed, and life becomes a little bit less fun. It’s about getting that balance correct.’

davidgandywellwear.com