Top designers are getting in on the act and the latest collection from Adidas by Stella McCartney will hit the shelves soon.

McCartney's distinctive collection marries the technology of the sportswear experts with her own creative flair as she takes her inspiration from ballet in the Gym Dance range and Victoriana in the prints and cuts of the Tennis line. For the green-minded there is also a naturally-dyed organic cotton T-shirt cover-up for after classes.

Her Wintersports range is cut to flatter a feminine figure and the Running line features a bold colour and metallic palette which will really make you stand out as you pound the pavements and pathways.

The A/W 08 collection is on sale this month in high-end department stores, Adidas Sport Performance stores and selected sports shops. Prices range from about £12 for the tennis wristbands to £360 for the Wintersports All-in-One. Stocklists 0870 240 4204.

Sensitive souls

If you find your mood seriously affected by your environment – including music, light and smells – you could be what an American psychologist dubs a Highly Sensitive Person. Dr Elaine Aron believes between 15 and 20 per cent of us are HSPs.

"Being an HSP means, necessarily, that you are more easily over-stimulated, stressed out, overwhelmed," she says.

"This trait is not something new I discovered – it has been mislabelled as shyness, introversion, inhibitedness, fearfulness, and the like.

HSPs can be these, but none of these are the fundamental trait they have inherited."

In fact, just because you feel things more deeply doesn't mean you are likely to be introverted at all, she adds, estimating that 30 per cent of HSPs are extroverts.

To find out if you have this so-called physiological condition, you can take a test at www.hsperson.com

Aron also offers guidance on how to live life to the full with the sensitivity, in her series of workbooks – see the website for details.