A Wine Rack for Your Bike Made From Scrap­yard Metal and Chemical-Free Leather

by Alex Davies, Paris, France on 05. 4.11

Pho­tos Cour­tesy of Jesse Her­bert

Liv­ing in France, I’ve devel­oped an appre­ci­a­tion for good wine. That and my Tree­Hug­ger–cul­ti­vated love for bik­ing make me a great admirer of the bicy­cle wine rack, which, from Montreal-based designer Jesse Her­bert, is exactly what it sounds like. Made with metal picked up in scrap­yards and chemical-free, non-dyed leather, this is a great acces­sory for sum­mer pic­nics and get togethers.

Her­bert worked for Envi­ron­ment Canda and Nat­ural Resources Canada before turn­ing to design, where he feels he makes more of a dif­fer­ence. Most of his work is in leather: cuff bracelets (with built in USB keys), yoga straps, a strap-on purse, and, in my opin­ion the most impres­sive, the bicy­cle wine rack. You can check out and pur­chase Holden’s work through his Etsy store.

The bike wine rack fits onto any 1″ bike frame with antique brass fas­ten­ers and hid­den metal clamps that hold the bot­tle, which Her­bert guar­an­tees will never fall out. The brass used for the fas­ten­ers comes from a scrap yard; Her­bert says that found objects are “what inspires me to cre­ate.” The leather is free of chem­i­cal adhe­sives and dyes, and is veg­etable tanned.

So why not brush up on Jerry’s Green Wine Guide, strap a bot­tle on your bike, and head out for a per­fect sum­mer day? I’ts not the most nec­es­sary bike acces­sory in the world, but it’s a fun idea and the leather looks awe­some. It’s also a great present idea (the rack runs for $25, plus ship­ping), remem­ber, Sun­day is Mother’s Day!

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Kate Spade, Paul Smith and Other Design­ers Respond to Urban Com­muters’ Demand for Fash­ion­able Bags, Coats and Shoes

Wall Street Jour­nal — On Style — May 19, 2011

When apparel maker Betabrand cre­ated a pair of khaki pants whose back-pocket lin­ings and hems could be exposed to reveal reflec­tive fab­ric, it expected the pants to be a short-term nov­elty item.

But the $90 “Bike to Work” pants took off among two-wheeled com­muters seek­ing clothes that marry fash­ion and func­tion. “They’re one of our most pop­u­lar prod­ucts,” says Chris Lind­land, the 38-year-old founder of the San Fran­cisco com­pany, which now has a women’s ver­sion of the pants.

Helio Ascari has assem­bled a wardrobe that works when he’s on or off his bike.

Bryan Der­ballaHelio Ascari has assem­bled a wardrobe that works when he’s on or off his bike.

Bike com­mut­ing is a trendy mode of trans­port in the U.S. these days, hit­ting that sweet spot where green, styl­ish and retro meet. New York City has been in a fer­ment of debate over new bike lanes that are tak­ing up car lanes, while in Port­land, Ore., 6% of work­ers were bicy­cling to jobs in 2009, accord­ing to the League of Amer­i­can Bicy­clists. Today’s bike com­muters tend to be early adopters and influ­encers, the sorts of peo­ple who snapped up first-generation iPads.

But out­fit­ting one­self for bike com­mut­ing raises style issues. Street clothes can be uncom­fort­able and lim­it­ing. Yet as a sport, bik­ing relies on Span­dex bike shorts and neon wind­break­ers. Com­muters are hun­gry for bike-friendly clothes and acces­sories that don’t require a quick change in the bath­room before a busi­ness meet­ing or a restau­rant din­ner with friends.

“It’s very hard to find styl­ish cycle cloth­ing,” says Helio Ascari, a 34-year-old Ital­ian model who lives in New York City. But because he rides his bike every­where, includ­ing work, con­certs, stores and even par­ties, he requires clothes that seam­lessly tran­si­tion to all his destinations.

Bags that look and func­tion like brief­cases or luxe hand­bags are a par­tic­u­lar request of many com­mut­ing cyclists. One of Mr. Ascari’s favorite finds is his can­vas Linus Bike pan­niers, which have a min­i­mal­ist look. “I have a classic-style bike, and the bag matches my bike, besides being very use­ful,” he says. “I can carry all my belong­ings in a very styl­ish way.

Man­u­fac­tur­ers are respond­ing to demands like his with an array of bags, shoes, coats and even tai­lored cloth­ing. Some of it comes from brands such as Paul Smith, Coach and Kate Spade that are sell­ing the styles in their own stores. Oth­ers come from new spe­cial­ist brands that are sell­ing online.

In August, Coach will launch a line of bags—each a clas­sic leather Coach look—that’s attach­able to a bike’s han­dle­bars, frame, or rear rack.

Nona Var­nado, a brand man­u­fac­tured in New York, makes a chic clutch bag with straps that hook onto a belt. The com­pany also makes a vari­ety of “hip­sters”— bands that wrap around the hips and cover up any flesh exposed when a rider leans for­ward over the handlebars.

Kate Spade New York last month launched two cycling bags in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Ade­line Ade­line, a New York City bicy­cle shop that spe­cial­izes in urban com­muter bik­ing. (The part­ner­ship included a limited-edition, $1,100 Ital­ian Abici bicy­cle fully out­fit­ted for com­muters with enclosed chain guards and fend­ers and a sil­ver rear rack.)

The Kate Spade bags are ver­sions of two of the brand’s clas­sic designs altered to be eas­ily be attached to bicy­cles. The $425 cowhide Essex bag has two clips on the strap that attach to han­dle­bars. The $375 Bay Street Quinn tote, made from crin­kle patent leather, has hooks on the bot­tom that can be fas­tened to a rear rack.

Julie Hirschfeld, the owner of Ade­line Ade­line, says there’s a need for more urban-biking fash­ions designed for women. Also a graphic designer, she com­mutes to work each day over the Brook­lyn Bridge and says, “I want some­thing that looks as good as a hand­bag I would buy.”

Ms. Hirschfeld has designed her own bike bag, which she plans to bring out this sum­mer. The bag will come in can­vas and leather ver­sions and will sell for roughly $400. Many of the pan­niers and other bags she cur­rently car­ries come from Great Britain, Hol­land and other places where com­muter bik­ing is more established.

Madame de Pé, a brand devel­oped by a mar­ket­ing con­sult­ing group in Ams­ter­dam, makes women’s coats that look more fash­ion­able than the tent-like rain pon­chos to which many bicy­clists resort. The coats have a long, weighted hem that cov­ers ped­al­ing knees and a ruched hood that moves with the head for clear vis­i­bil­ity when a cyclist looks right or left.

British cycling-clothing com­pany Rapha last fall launched a cloth­ing col­lec­tion with designer Paul Smith. It includes a pur­ple polka-dot neck scarf and a jaunty cap for men.

Rapha also makes a tai­lored wool jacket, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with bespoke tai­lor Tim­o­thy Ever­est, that could walk straight from the bike rack to the board­room. Priced at £400 (just under $650), it has a pro­tec­tive storm col­lar and front hems that can be folded back to free up a bicyclist’s legs. (The company’s web­site said recently that it’s sold out, with new sup­plies due in July.)

“We’re all busi­ness­men and get around by bike,” says Slate Olson, gen­eral man­ager of Rapha in the U.S. “You want to feel like you could step into a meeting.”

He rat­tles off a list of Rapha prod­ucts that came out of com­pany exec­u­tives’ own needs: button-down shirts with dis­creet side pan­els that pro­vide room for reach­ing for­ward, but­tons that pre­vent a col­lar from flap­ping in the wind, and spe­cial pock­ets that pre­vent a cell­phone from tum­bling out.

Rapha’s lat­est inven­tion will be out in six months: a cycling brogue shoe. It’s made of leather that has been dim­pled like a wingtip but also has a recessed cleat that will attach to pedals—without click­ing on the floor when walking.

Mr. Ever­est, the tai­lor, has also worked with Brooks, a British man­u­fac­turer known for its leather bike seats, to cre­ate a cycling coat that Brooks expects to launch this year. Called the “Cri­te­rion” jacket and priced at $1,400, it is made of the water-shedding Ven­tile cot­ton used by the British mil­i­tary and is lined in Eng­lish tweed. It has chan­nels for iPod wires and a pocket on the lower back—an easy-access loca­tion for bicyclists.

Brooks is also bring­ing out more bags, espe­cially for those early-adopter influ­encers. “We need things for the lap­top,” says Cristina Würd­ing, Brooks’s busi­ness direc­tor, “things for the iPad.”

—Email Christina.Binkley@wsj.com or twitter.com/BinkleyOnStyle.