Motorcycle fashion/style: What is it in today’s moto-world?

I’ve been meaning to write about this Moto-Fashion subject for sometime, but for some reason, I’ve struggled to find my entry point, but then suddenly, I read this quote by Coco Chanel, and I suddenly had my start point. She said (in a great Franglais accent) “Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” So, where to next then? I hear you think out aloud. Well, I’ve included the words fashion AND style in the title, so let’s start with a definition of each of them:

Fashion definition: A popular or the latest style of clothing, hair, or decoration, and I would add…….something that gives people confidence.

Style definition: A particular procedure by which something is done; a manner or way, and I would add……something that comes from your inner spirit and not your clothes.

So, we could say that fashion is the ‘what’ and style is the ‘how’, so therefore, clothes mean nothing until someone lives in them. Now let’s apply this to our motorcycle world. If I asked you to describe a motorcycle Rocker, a Mod, a Hells Angel, a city commuter, an adventure bike rider, an off-road rider or a street racer, you would be able to paint me a perfect stereotype picture of each of them. However, I think today’s moto fashion, more than any other time, has (fortunately) lost its rules. It’s all about the individual and personal style. I would go one step further and also say that motorcycle fashion is driven by the local weather. For example, riding through Arizona in August, dressed in a leather race suit like a Power Ranger on a sports bike that can’t get enough air through it’s vents to keep it cool, is not a fashion that will ever take off. Riding a Honda Fireblade in flip-flops in Brazil is fine, because that’s what the weather and relaxed style dictates, although it’s not wholly safe. If you live in a cold, rainy part of the world, your moto fashion will have several waterproof and heated elements to it.

Anyone commuting through Rome on a Vespa only wears a helmet as a nod to moto fashion, because his/her moto fashion is whatever is their normal fashion anyway. The motorcycle specific fashion world is primarily driven by safety, so that means clothing made with pads, leather, kevlar, air bags etc, and which critically, has to meet international safety standards. In the mainstream Moto-fashion world, the fashion marketeers obviously work closely with the motorcycle brand, so people invariably dress the way that the motorcycle companies influence/dictate. This means that what you wear on your bike is how the marketeers want you to present yourself to the world, which is important today, when human contacts and unconscious biases are so quick to form. Motorcycle fashion is instant language, and crucially, style, because style gets photos, photos get clicks’n’likes, commerce and trends take off.

It’s safe to say today in the EU, UK and USA, that the average men’s and women’s moto clothing is up a few sizes sizes versus the ‘70s, and with this comes a different style and fitting of clothing. I’m respectful of those that choose their clothes for the way of their actual lifestyle, and not necessarily somebody else’s trend or brand. I like that individuality. I’m also someone who likes to choose my happiest colours to wear, which are naturally the ones that make me feel good. I’ll go one step further whilst I think about this, because I also look after my clothes, like the good friends they are to me.

I know some people who I believe are really fashion-style-cool, and they don’t make fashion own them. They have obviously decided who they are and want to express it by the way they both dress and live. The boutique fashion businesses like Hebtroco (Link below) for example, or the global workwear company like Carhart, all provide clothing that is used in moto-fashion in today’s world, but arn’t moto-exclusive. They’re also at different ends of the product price, volume and consumer reach spectrum.

There’s a number of female moto trick riders that I follow and whilst their dress code has little in the way of body armour, they do dress on the beast of a bike that they’re taming in the way of ultimate feminity, and this means that their high up on both the ‘fashion-and-style-ometer’. The other common fashion thing in the moto and general fashion world is tattoos. People that have tattoos will obviously want to show them off to others to express their own individuality with the art they’ve got on their bodies. This usually means ‘less’ in the amount of clothing that they wear on the bike so that they can show their tattoos off, and wearing less certainly isn’t restricted to just the hotter climate parts of our world either!

Don’t for one minute think that because I’ve used photos of me below in this post, that I’m using myself as the truest example of moto fashion and style, because I’m not. However, I like the creativity involved in arranging my bike clothing for both everyday moto riding and special moto events. Some may see this post and my interest in fashion as “not-being-very-blokey-biker”, and to them I say, bugger off!

My fashion/style approach to different bikes & different events.

Anyway, that’s about it really, apart from a quick thank you to photographer, Stasy Damyanova (link below) for the feature photo of me chatting to another beach racer at this year’s Race the Waves.

Finally, what better way to sign off than to use a few of the lyrics from ‘Fashion’ by fashion’n’style guru David Bowie:

There’s a brand new dance but I don’t know its name

That people from bad homes do again and again

It’s big and it’s bland full of tension and fear

They do it over there but we don’t do it here

Fashion!

Turn to the left

Fashion!

Turn to the right

Oooh, fashion!

We are the goon squad and we’re coming to town

Beep-beep, beep-beep