The Ubiquity of Belstaff

Bikes Culture

Now we kind of dig the whole Belstaff thing. Because over all other ways of wearing motorcycle gear, the classic lines of the brand’s products are probably the least offensive.

You can ride a motorbike in a Belstaff, be protected and warm and still drop into the caff or the pub, or even a business meeting, without appearing to be a twisted fetishist.

Belstaff’s fashion/ crossover appeal has been getting up our noses of late. All things Belstaff seem to become more ubiquitous with every fashionable season – with strange, crimply textures and offbeat colourways showing up in the trendier fashion outlets.

We doubt their sponsorship of the McGregor/Boorman blagfest will do them any favours either, in the long term.

More than any of this, though, there’s something about the hard, soulless stares of the models in the ads, something about the recuperation of biker style into the iconography of High Street fashion that leaves a funny taste in the mouth.

Come on Belstaff. Go back to your roots.

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5 Responses to “The Ubiquity of Belstaff”

  1. Mattdog

    Couldn’t agree more. If I see one more posh teenager in Chelsea wearing a Belstaff I’ll eat my leathers…

  2. Ken Lines

    I agree, from the Belstaff Black pPrince, my first essay onto motorcycling protective clothing, to my last pair of leather ‘biking trousers complete with inbuilt armour in 1998, Belstaff stood for motorcycling, for protection and for quality.  Now it looks as though they are just another high street ‘fashion’ namer with nothing to recommend them except their past glories.

    Ken lines.

  3. We love to knock anything that is successful.

    Let’s knock Ewan and Charlie for doing more to raise the profile of motorcycling on maionstream TV than anything else I can remember.

    Belstaff has two distinct lines of clothing – the fashion collection and the Pure Motorcycle collection.

    As the name inplies the “Pure Motorcycle ” collection is protective motorcycle clothing. Yes real protective motorcyle jackets which combine Belstaff’s unique style and heritage with protection.

    The fashion advertising is designed to appeal to the fashion market, simple as.

    If you want a bike jacket look at the Pure Motorcycle collection.

    At least get your facts right and find out what you’re talking about before you start knocking something.

  4. MikeF

    Hey DPC7: as I said, we’re digging Belstaff. But as is the case when any core brand crosses over to the mainstream, some of the core will abandon the brand because they don’t want to be associated with the nature of that crossover appeal. A lot of biker folk cherish the heritage of the brands they consume – and the fashion line obviously exploits this  love of motorcycling and sells the biking aesthetic to the punters. The same thing happened with skate and surf culture in the eighties and nineties – and you can trace the wax and wane of this sort of process all the way back to the roots of of rock n roll.
    Having said all of that, Belstaff make nice stuff. In fact, I own two Belstaff jackets. Not sure which collection they come from…

  5. As soon as fashion is mentioned prices go up whichever collection.  Shame.