London Fashion Week has form when it comes to transport. Traditionally, attendees glide in and out of chauffeur-driven cars, leaving laptops and ugly, bulky items behind, so they can keep things presentable once safely seated on the front row. In between, there’s time to gossip, snack and ping off a few emails from the comfort of the back seat, while also making sure you don’t miss a show. It’s just the way things have always been.
But this season, there’s change in the air. Because gone are the days where every single one of fashion’s cool girls are slipping straight out of leather seats and onto the front row, with each hair still perfectly in place. Instead, plenty of those aforementioned people are switching from four wheels for two, and trading tidiness for something a bit more deliciously laissez-fare. Yes, I’m talking about bikes. Lime bikes, to be specific: apparently one of the chicest and most coveted accessories at London Fashion Week.
Acielle StyleDuMonde
I know what you’re thinking: it’s a bike! It has greasy wheels! It’s sometimes missing a seat! But it’s also so much more than those arbitrary things. Firstly, a Lime bike is bright green (last summer, we would have called it Brat green). Secondly, a Lime bike is always more than a Lime bike. It’s long become synonymous with London – it’s how people inadvisably get home from the club these days, with piles of them strewn on pavements outside East London’s favourite bars. And thirdly, it’s the most sustainable way to travel, which means it’s cooler than any other sort of transport, in my opinion.
The green bikes were outside every show I went to, and on many occasions, those getting on and off them were dressed in their finest garb, none of which was cycling appropriate. At Simone Rocha, there was a woman in kitten heels and an off-shoulder top, neatly propping her Lime up before heading into the show. Then there was the woman in ballet flats and Alo tracksuit bottoms, with a Prada backpack stashed into her Lime’s basket. At one point, I saw someone in a fuchsia tulle frock straddling a bike, riding it right up to the queue to get into a show. The pink and green contrast was, quite frankly, astonishing (complimentary).