Wall Street Journal

At the beginning of the pandemic, Liana Levi bought her first Pilates reformer machine. An athlete and dancer from a young age, Levi, 31, wasn’t finding online workout classes to be as stimulating as she would have liked. She moved the apparatus—which looks like a cross between an exercise machine and a bed and uses springs and levers to create resistance—into her mom’s pool house in Los Angeles’s Little Holmby neighborhood. As early as March 2020, she was having close girlfriends over who wanted to use it to exercise. Since most of them didn’t know how to use the machine on their own or how to piece Pilates sequences together, she started training them for fun and as a way to socialize. “My acquaintances would be like, ‘Oh, my god, I want to try it,’” says Levi, 31. “‘Your body looks insane; I want to come.’ It just kind of spread through word of mouth.”

Levi’s studio—which she officially launched as Forma Pilates in April 2020—has quickly become a popular destination for celebrities, models and entrepreneurs. A private class with Levi is $500, and a semiprivate class, which two or three friends can take together, costs $100 per person. Her clients include the models Kaia Gerber, Cara Delevingne, Adwoa Aboah and Ashley Graham, plus celebrities like Ariana Grande, Rumer Willis and influencer Addison Rae. Earlier this month she opened her first studio in a commercial space in West Hollywood. She also offers online classes.

Though Levi’s background is in fashion—at the pandemic’s onset, she was working as a freelance consultant for a jewelry brand—she’d been doing Pilates for about 12 years before starting Forma, she says at an in-person interview held at the San Vicente Bungalows members’ club (everyone who goes is required to cover the front and back cameras on their phones with small green stickers to prevent them from photographing celebrities or anything or one else). She obtained her instructor certification from the American Sports & Fitness Association along the way. 

The chatty Levi, dressed in a white T-shirt, khaki trousers and bejeweled Lanvin sandals, sums up her appeal: “I’m young, I’m relatable, I’m cool,” she says. “I create personal relationships. A lot of people in the fitness industry are…tree-hugging, nature people.” She describes her classes as a kind of haven for her celebrity and non-famous clients alike, particularly during the pandemic. “It was that one hour where they felt like life was somewhat normal and they could chat and be social,” she says of the period. She took temperatures at the door, required masks and asked all clients to get tested frequently. Masks are optional now that most are vaccinated. 

Singer-songwriter Rita Ora, 30, said via email that going to Forma feels like going over to a girlfriend’s house: “She’s so sweet like a Polly Pocket, I thought, Phew, this is going to be easy! 10 minutes in, I was sweating like I was hitting the gym.”

“Every exercise has many variations and a high number of total reps,” Melanie Masarin, 30, the founder and CEO of the alcohol-free aperitif brand Ghia, said via Instagram DM. “I’ve been doing Pilates for 10 years, but my body has changed tremendously since I started going to [Liana].”

A pivotal business moment, Levi says, was the day when one of her childhood friends brought the model Hailey Bieber along to class. Soon after, Bieber returned with her stylist, Maeve Reilly, and then her husband, Justin Bieber. Kendall Jenner has since been spotted outside the studio with Bieber. 

Levi operates on a referral-only system. “The only reason I’m so strict is because it’s my home,” she says. Demand among her 200 regular in-person clients has been so high that after she and her fiancé, Steve Anavim, moved into a house in West Hollywood last October, she converted her own pool house into her second studio. Anavim, 36, is a real estate investor and has also become Forma’s de facto chief financial officer. Both locations are airy and minimal, filled with sleek Merrithew reformers, a towel branded with the dusty pink Forma logo at each one. Forma also offers branded accessories, socks and apparel. She’s hired six instructors and trained them in her Forma method. 

In April, the Daily Mail’s website published an article with the headline, “Scott Disick’s girlfriend Amelia Hamlin and his ex Sofia Richie arrive at SAME pilates studio on SAME DAY.” Naturally, it was Forma. The two women were supposed to be at different locations, but one of them had gotten it wrong; a face-to-face meeting was narrowly avoided. 

Those without a connection can sign up for Forma’s online videos. “We have clients on our online platform who are in a village in India,” she says. “I wanted to find a way to earn an income while I sleep. I’ve been working my a— off, and I’m exhausted.” Access costs $49.99 per month, and she says she currently has over 750 subscribers.

Source: The Pilates Class You’ll Probably Never Get Into

By Lane Florsheim