Friday 11 September 2009

Horse riding fashion is coming to cycling on the streets of London

I wonder if I've spotted a trend? I noticed a female cyclist around Mortimer Street (W1) wearing what at first sight looked like a riding helmet. On closer inspection (we'd stopped at lights!) it turned out to be a cycling helmet, I think, which just looked a lot like a riding helmet. I've done a bit of research on the net and I couldn't find the exact model. But it has made me now question whether it might really be a riding helmet, as plenty of the new riding helmets for being on horses, look like more like cycling gear. If you see what I mean.

Further proof of the trend was noticing another cyclist wearing what can only be described as long black ... wait for it ... riding boots. Again, you could argue that she was just wearing nice black boots, but it did make her look a bit like she was about to do riding.

Anyway, here's a bit of evidence that people are trying to make riding helmets look a bit more like "normal" hats - the company is called Yakkay

And here's a horse-riding site which clearly shows that horse riding helmets are moving in a biking direction.


It's called The Horse Riding Clothing and Saddle Blog

Final thought - do you think you could ride on a bike using a bowler hat for safety?

5 comments:

Natalie said...

I recently splashed out on a Yakkay helmet. I got a black one like the red one you picture and also a pink tweed trilby style. It's already making me enjoy cycling even more - I hadn't realised how much of a dork I felt in my old cycle helmet! It's also nice not to have to take it off when I'm just popping into the shop for a paper.

Loving the blog btw. See what you think of mine:
http://afternoonteatotal.blogspot.com
Natalie

KarmaCycle said...

Ha - it turns out I'm not mad! I asked the lovely people at London Cycle Chic (link on the right of my page) and they said:

"I am totally with you on the horse-riding gear thing. We actually just did our photoshoot for cyclechic.co.uk Autumn/Winter and the styling has a definite equestrian look to it! Photos will be on the blog and the site soon."

Fantastic.

KarmaCycle said...

Hey Natalie - thanks for the kind comments about the blog and love the fact that you're one of the trend-setters actually wearing this cool stuff. I had a quick look around your blog and really like it. I'm kind of with you on the tea thing too - my grandmother used to have a tea caddy so you could blend your tea as you wished and somehow all the compartments and the way it was built with such quality and care really inspired me ...

Paul said...

It took me a couple of weeks, but I finally spotted someone cycling in what looked like a horse riding helmet. Fittingly enough it was worn by a young lady in Chelsea, she was using Old Church Street as a cut through from the Embankment. Very fetching. Riding helmets get a karma rating of five stars from me.

KarmaCycle said...

Aha! I think if at least three people are talking about it, surely that constitutes a trend! I think you're right Paul - it does look rather distinguished, doesn't it ... I'm not convinced I could carry it off, but I'm always open minded about these things. Good to see you on the blog, and do feel free to comment about all and everything as it's only really fun if there are plenty of ideas and thoughts flying around ... cheers.