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Even on a gray, drizzling day in New York this week, Kate Hudson is incandescent—not the sheen that comes with pearlized highlighters and good lighting, but the burnished glow of unmistakable health. The actress is quick to credit an over-the-counter retinol cream that has recently been a “game-changer,” but anyone familiar with her Instagram knows that the secret is not in a tube. It’s in a dance studio, at the gym, and on a Pilates reformer.
In 2013, Hudson—who credits an early introduction to ballet with jumpstarting her love affair with fitness—launched Fabletics, dedicated to infusing fashion and community into the activewear space. Today, the company takes another step forward in the name of body positivity, with a suite of workout gear in extended sizing, ranging from XXS to 3X. “For us, it’s a natural progression of what the brand really is. The world of health and fitness and wellness should be inclusive to everyone,” Hudson says, laying out the design innovations that went into the rollout, including curved seams, breathable mesh paneling, and thicker straps for extra support.
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If the new crisscrossed tank tops or electric floral leggings serve as #fitspo, that’s exactly the point. “My whole thing is bodies are so different,” says Hudson, acknowledging that fluctuations—including her own—are part and parcel of being a woman. “We all set these standards of what we think is the perfect body, but we should be changing the dialogue to what makes you feel good.” Achieving her own equilibrium is an ongoing process of recalibration. In this interview, she unpacks her appreciation for meditation (stoked by her mother, the equally incandescent actress Goldie Hawn), the eating plan that yielded her best skin ever, and why self-acceptance is key. It all makes for inspiring talk—especially coming from a down-to-earth multitasker who is quick to slip off her boots and pantomime a ballet combination mid-sentence. What works for one doesn’t necessarily work for all, she stresses: “Everybody’s got to figure out what is meaningful to them.” Here, what is meaningful to Hudson.
Your early ballet training has clearly stuck with you!Actually my passion for dance was not in ballet at the time. I wanted to be in hip-hop and in lyrical jazz—which was super in—and my mom just was like, “No, the foundation of dance is ballet.” She wasn’t like a crazy ballet mom. I was always more athletic-built, and all the other girls in class were a lot more svelte than I was, so trying to get me to be a ballerina was not her focus. The discipline as a metaphor for life was her whole thing. Dance gives you a worker-bee mentality because you’re constantly trying to get better and better. The work never ends.
How did that exposure to movement shape your approach to fitness later on?For me, it was just a way of life. My parents were active; I was in dance class my whole life, and then I started playing sports. But then you start realizing that, for a lot of people, they didn’t grow up with that kind of foundation. How do you create something to get people excited about connecting to themselves? That is what the company is about.
How does exercise play into the mind-body connection for you?It’s just scientifically proven that when we are active, the healing aspects for our brain are huge. Obviously as you’re working out, you’re strengthening your heart, but your brain has to work with all of it. Now, if you want to talk about longevity, you can’t not talk about exercise.
How did you get interested in mindfulness?My mom’s always been a huge proponent for meditation. Through her own practice, she started to recognize the power of the brain through mindfulness teachings, so her whole foundation is about that. What she’s created for these kids in schools is phenomenal, which goes to show that [finding] useful tools to settle in, to focus, to get a different perspective of your emotional reactivity is life-changing. My mom never shoved it down our throats as kids; it was sort of like, “This is something that would be helpful for you.” I finally started doing it maybe two and a half years ago more consistently, and I think that’s where I began to see the biggest improvements in my life. I started with the Deepak Chopra chakra-balancing meditation, which is on audio. Just his voice alone is so nice to listen to. I’d gone back and forth with certain kinds of chanting, and then I realized that I needed to be quiet—because that was hard—so I got into TM, transcendental meditation. I can be impatient, and it just sort of slowed me down a bit.
With the crisis of busy-ness in life these days, do you have a strategy for keeping up with workouts?I think it’s more about tuning into what you need vs. the actual workout. If you’re super busy and stressed out, you might need more sleep than the treadmill! The 10,000 steps thing is a great thing to think about. There are so many different ways that you can be active during the day that aren’t necessarily some hard-core workout. Take the stairs—all that stuff.
Your Instagram is a chronicle of your workouts—dance sessions, acro-style pole work, Pilates. Mixing it up seems to be key for you.But Pilates is my thing. When I get on a Pilates machine, my body responds to it in a way that makes sense. It’s such a core-based workout, it’s almost like you’re working from the inside-out, instead of the outside-in. The stronger I am in my center, the lighter I feel, period. I met [instructor Nicole Stuart] when I was 19. I was going to do this little movie called Almost Famous [laughs], and I needed to work out. The technique is so nice when you work with one person, if you can, because it’s all about placement.
Who stands out to you as an inspiration in terms of body positivity?I’m going to give the really obvious answer to that, which to me is Oprah. I just think she is forever, that woman. You want to do the healthy thing, but you know what? Women fluctuate. We give birth to children and carry them and breastfeed them, some of us. We are busy and we’re trying to work. Women’s bodies are very different than male bodies; the way that we store fat is different, and the way that we lose fat is different. We’re always trying to keep up—and then some of us give up, which is what we don’t want to do.
How do you approach skin care?My skin, like my body, it fluctuates. I’ll have three [good] days, and then boom, I’ve got pimples showing up. I’ve had a hard time figuring it out. When I went vegan last summer, my skin was the best it’s ever been—skin tone, pores, everything. Then I did Paleo, and what was interesting about Paleo was my skin wasn’t as good, but your weight drops. Food’s so good when it’s naughty, but the truth is, you’ve got to eat healthy! Sugar’s the worst—I wish it wasn’t, but it’s so brutal. Basically I don’t eat gluten, I don’t eat that much sugar, and I really don’t eat dairy. But then if I happen to be at a restaurant and they send out a dessert, I’m going to eat the dessert. And if Mario Batali whips up a pasta, I’m not going to say no!
We can’t be perfect all the time.Actually my therapist said, “There’s two great little phrases in the world: ‘so what’ and ‘oh well.‘ ” I love that. It doesn’t mean that you don’t keep moving forward. [It means] shake it off. The small stuff is the stuff that is killing us. It’s like, “Okay, oops, I didn’t reach my goal this week. Oh well. I’m going to keep going.”
