COAST TO COEVE: Thanet Atheleisure brand setting its own rules
Fashion for the hybrid lifestyle
For siblings Yazmin and Ryan, the idea behind their new athleisure label Coeve (@itscoeve) began with a familiar problem: having to move between different parts of everyday life without constantly changing clothes.
The pair, who grew up in Margate and Broadstairs, found themselves living increasingly hybrid lifestyles. Yazmin runs a wellness salon in Hackney, while Ryan works freelance, and both wanted clothing that could move as easily between work, exercise and socialising as they did.
“We kind of felt we were wearing these clothes which you could wear to work, but then we’d struggle wearing it necessarily to the gym or to get a coffee and still feel quite presentable and smart,” Ryan says.
That became the starting point for Coeve, a brand built around what the siblings describe as clothing that can be worn in different environments without sacrificing either comfort or appearance.
It is a concept that reflects a wider shift in how people spend their time. The siblings see wellness, exercise and socialising increasingly overlapping, particularly among younger consumers. Instead of nights out revolving around drinking, Ryan points to a growing culture of group runs, fitness classes and meeting friends for coffee.
Coeve is intended to sit within that shift, but the brand’s roots go deeper than a passing trend.
Yazmin has spent years working in wellness through her Hackney salon, Still London, a family business that combines beauty and wellbeing treatments including nails, massage, facials and an infrared sauna. That experience has influenced the way the siblings approach their new venture.
“So we’ve always been in the wellness industry,” Yazmin says. “We’ve always been into sort of working out and keeping ourselves healthy but then also not really knowing what to wear as well.”
The frustration was particularly apparent when it came to conventional sportswear.
“Some days you just want to chuck on something but also look smart,” she says. “I’ve had pieces from other sports brands and you just don’t feel as good when you’re walking around in just a tracksuit.”
The answer was not to create another conventional sportswear range, but something more polished. Coeve’s opening collection focuses on relatively simple, wearable silhouettes: flares, leggings and a three-quarter zip, alongside the piece that has quickly emerged as its signature - a double-collar jacket.
The collar is more than a decorative detail. It is the design element the siblings believe gives the jacket its point of difference, helping to transform a familiar tracksuit-style piece into something sharper.
“The collar on the women’s jacket as well. That’s different. No one’s done that,” Yazmin says.
Ryan adds: “That’s really become the hero product.”
Its popularity has surprised even the founders. “Especially, having launched in summer, we didn’t think that that would sell just yet,” Yazmin says. “But yeah, it just shows that we tried something different and it’s working.”
That willingness to bend conventional rules is captured in Coeve’s tagline: Do It Your Way. For the siblings, it is about freedom of expression and refusing to be overly constrained by what athleisure is supposed to look like.
Even the brand name carries a connection to home. Coeve was inspired by their upbringing beside the sea in Thanet, with the coastal influence intended to run through the brand’s identity without turning it into a literal seaside label.
Yet beneath the styling is an equally strong focus on how the clothes are made.
Neither sibling came from a traditional fashion background and, rather than treating that as a disadvantage, they approached product development cautiously. “We haven’t just found the first manufacturer and gone with the first sample,” Yazmin says. “This is why it’s taken us a year to get to this point because we didn’t just want to just send anything out into the market.
“One of the big things that we always asked the manufacturers was, can you show us your factory? They would all give us a tour and show us their certificates, and that was really important to us as well to see how it’s being made.”
That attention to sourcing echoes the philosophy behind Still London, which was founded in 2017 with its flagship salon opening in Dalston in early 2019. The salon was built around natural, vegan and cruelty-free products and a more environmentally conscious approach to beauty.
While pieces are already finding their way to customers at a pleasing rate, the ambition is not to chase rapid growth. The siblings describe Coeve as a long-term project, drawing on the lessons of running Still London through seven years of changing circumstances, including the pandemic.
“It’s not just oh launching a tracksuit and then we’re on to the next thing,” Yazmin says.
The next stage is already taking shape. As the brand moves towards autumn and winter, new samples are being developed in an espresso or chocolate-brown palette, with the same emphasis on a premium feel. There is also an exploration of opportunities to bring Coeve into physical retail through pop-ups and independent shops in Margate and Broadstairs.
For Yazmin, that local presence is about more than selling clothes. It is about letting people experience them. “It’s all very well being online, but you have to be in front of people,” she says. “People can look at your stuff on Instagram, but until they actually experience it they don't understand.”
For now, though, the siblings are concentrating on getting the foundations right: considered design, responsible sourcing, quality fabrics and clothing that can keep pace with modern life.
“We want to cover it and do it to the very best ability we can,” Ryan says.
Coeve’s proposition is deliberately simple: clothes for work, workouts, coffee and everything in between - but with enough individuality to make them feel like something more than another tracksuit. And, true to its tagline, the rules are theirs to bend.
INFO: www.itscoeve.com
