Sometimes you just have to ignore getting your pant leg covered in chain grease or your skirt stuck in your spokes and go for gold on your banana seat. Fashion and bikes don’t always go hand in hand, but during Halifax’s Bike Week you can mix the two with abandon at two bicycle fashion events.
Re:Cycle + Re:Fashion (Saturday, June 4 at 3-8pm, Christchurch Hall, 20 Dundas Street) intends to explore “the idea of re-fashioning something and putting it out there in the public as a parade,” says co-organizer Gary Markle. Participants are encouraged to bring raw material, which will be made into a custom creation on the spot by talented tailors with sewing machines. Then, clad in their new costumes, bikers will decorate their bikes and ride around Lake Banook, capping the event off with a potluck.
Hayley Gray is organizing The Tweed Run (Sunday, May 29 at Victoria Park, 1pm), a bicycle ride throughout Halifax “in which the cyclists are expected to dress in traditional British cycling attire, particularly tweed. Any bicycle is acceptable on the Tweed Run, but classic vintage bicycles are encouraged,” says Gray. “Some effort to recreate the spirit of a bygone era is always appreciated.”
Style yourself in 1900s British attire and bring a blanket to sit on for the picnic that follows the ride.
“The goal is to demonstrate bicycles’ fluidity in time, culture and use. So many Bike Week events focus on bicycling for fitness or for the environment, both of which are awesome,” says Gray. “But bicycling is also something people have done for almost 200 years. We bike because it’s fun, it’s playful, sometimes it’s fashionable and much more social than closed-in vehicles.”
This article appears in May 26 – Jun 1, 2011.
I think there’s some kind of typo here. May 29 is a Sunday.
Thanks for pointing that out, it is Sunday!