Jingle Bike Bells

Bicycle Christmas Tree

The Dublin Cycling Campaign is not only there for your cycle friendly city. Last Thursday shows it also provides community service by organising great parties.

The annual Christmas Party at the Pod was filled with bicycle commuters, cycle chic party goers, and jolly couriers. The sidewalks and traffic squares on Harcourt street were temporarily transformed into Dublin’s busiest bike parking spot; fixies were strung up high in racks and railings, road racers were bundled together as if to warm each other in the snow, and Dutch bicycles stood locked against the LUAS lantern posts.

Fashion and cycling

Outside, the Bicycle Christmas Tree welcomed visitors, while inside, people already warmed up to a fashion display by local Dublin businesses Georgia in Dublin, GreenAer, Rothar, Urban Frog, and bear bicycles. Their five minute fashion show – involving unique rain gear, electric bikes, panther print panniers, merino wool and Dutch cheese – kick started the party, paving the way for Dublin Goldsprints and their bike battles. The Goldsprints´ many blue bike versus red bike moments led to a final, after which the DJ took over with music and bike films.

The rest is bike history.

Blue Bike

Red Bike

Bicycles, Fashion, Rain.

Christmas Party at the Pod

Tomorrow, the Dublin Cycling Campaign hosts its annual Christmas Party (8:30 pm, The Pod, Harcourt Street). Like previous year, bicycle lovers will have plenty to look at: bicycle Christmas trees, bicycles films, and bicycle battles (next week, this blog will bring you a report of the party itself). This year, however, the Dublin Cycling Campaign also introduces a new element: fashion. In a Bicycle Fashion Show, Dublin designers will be sending out models to show their costumes and bicycles.

Sleek, meaningful - bikes on billboards

Fashion and cycling go hand in hand these days. Bicycles are found in shop windows and glossy magazines. Models with tilted heads and meaningful stares, leaning against sleek bike frames, decorate the city’s billboards. So a fashion show dedicated solely to cycling is the natural next step to educate people cycling should be done in style.

We’re glad it has come this far. However – coming from the Netherlands – we are also surprised it has. To us, cycling is as much a fashion statement as taking out your garbage. We had not expected bicycles could be a centerpiece on the catwalk. To clarify that, have a look at these lovely ladies in Amsterdam:

Lady walking with Dutch Bicycle, Amsterdam

 

Lady on Dutch Bicycle, Amsterdam

This is the Netherlands: where cycling is purely functional and style isn’t on a cyclist’s mind.

At least, until now.

Because more and more, the non-Dutch focus on cycling in style is also surfacing in the Netherlands. For example: three Amsterdam ladies recently set out on a mission to bring style to Dutch cycling. Inspired by 18th century Victorian couture, their company Madame De Pé produces stylish raincoats that make flapping poncho’s belong to the past. And there’s more: fancy fixies and bmx bikes are other examples of foreign influences on Dutch cycling.

So tomorrow, at the Dublin Cycling Campaign’s Fashion Show, we’ll be extra alert. Maybe we’ll find some Dublin fashion that suits the Dutch.

Madame de Pé Victorian Poncho