AFTER A FASHION

With shorts and shades, cycling clobber is big in mainstream fashion in 2018. John Whitney wonders what might be next?

The news that cycling shorts and wraparound sunglasses have become the fashion statement of the summer really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. The likes of Kim Kardashian and Princess Anne are just two celebs taking cycling gear off the road and onto the high street. Kardashian, ever the trendsetter (I’m told), has been spotted wearing cycling shorts - once an ’80s staple - from her husband Kanye West’s own brand, while Anne arrived at Harry and Meghan’s wedding in a pair of sporty Adidas sunnies to accompany her “otherwise prim look”, according to Vogue. Lycra shorts and performance sunnies have been a feature of the summer, a staple of catwalks, festivals and high society across the world.

Cycling, both in the pro ranks, and in the rank and file, has long been a place to make fashion statements, so it makes a sort of sense that some of this seeps out into the wider fashion world. While functionality of kit and clothing has always been high on the cyclist’s agenda - certainly higher than some of the things you see from catwalk designers - how you look, for many, assumes equal importance.

Among everyday cyclists, wanting to look good on a bike explains why sartorial-savvy brands like Rapha are so popular. And in some ways, walking along the catwalk and cycling along a stretch of tarmac at the Tour de France have plenty in common - both are, to an extent, moving billboards, each model/cyclist trying to outdo the other in grabbing attention. You don’t always see things destined to catch on, either. For every catwalk model seemingly inspired by Herman Munster (Google it), you get a cyclist like Mario Cipollini sporting a muscle suit.

Look-at-me choices have always been a part of the sport, though, and it’s felt most keenly in sunglasses. There were plenty of eyes on Greg LeMond’s when he sported the Oakley Eyeshades in the mid-’80s. Even though the fashion went away, it’s back with a vengeance, with a biggeris-better mission statement seemingly in vogue. Yet while the fashion world has pinched bits of cycling, us cyclists know better than to wear these things off the bike. While Lycra is the perfect accompaniment to a bike ride, in any other context it’s very wrong. Similarly, those garish sunnies might match your fluoro bike and clothing, but wear them at a wedding and you’ll stick out like a sore thumb.

What might we see the fashion world borrow next? The arm warmer? The overshoe? Both could have a big future in Britain, with its cold, wet winters, if less so in the hot and dry California, that Kim and Kanye call home. Perhaps the shorts thing might next extend to include a chamois - adding, at least, a dose of practicality to this oddest of trends.

Look-at-me choices have always been a part of the sport, and it’s felt most keenly in sunglasses