One Thing Done Well: Café du Cycliste
Our series of brands doing one item especially well continues this month with the Café du Cycliste
cycling jersey
words by Will HALBERT
When it comes to the tricky world of technical performance wear, form and function are the rarest and most reluctant of bedfellows. That’s because, with very few exceptions, the middle ground between form and function is, well, exactly that: middling. Mediocrity is, after all, the inevitable result of excessive compromise.
Enter premium cyclewear brand, Café du Cycliste. For the best part of 10 years, Café du Cycliste have combined staunch, technical excellence with modern Côte d’Azurian aesthetics. With increasing verve and élan, they have created superlative cycle garments that fly the flag for the French penchant for style. And they have done this without a single thought to the idea of compromise.
Café du Cycliste owes its name and ethose to a small café in the back country of Nice; A place that was, by turns, a post-ride stop and a pre-ride meeting place for cyclists of all classes. It was there that Remi Clermont, the creative (and athletic) force behind Café du Cycliste, saw a need for cycle wear that went beyond the cookie-cutter, club-colour-clad clothing of the pro-cycling scene. ‘I was fascinated by what people were wearing, what I was wearing,’ Remi recalls. ‘None of us were professionals, so why were we dressed as if we were? Logos, sponsors, team colours. For me, clothes are about feeling good and that is equally true on the bike as it is off the bike’.
True to this sentiment, The Francine Jersey – a staple in the Café du Cycliste line-up – bares all the marks of Remi’s quest for innovation through iteration. It’s a show-stopping performance piece that struts its stuff at the very intersection between form and function. The fierce technicality of the jersey’s high wicking, fast drying proprietary fabric is gleefully offset by the sleek aesthetics of its signature, Breton-inspired styling. The breezy, midweight construction and open mesh panels provide the protection and ventilation we’ve come to expect from premium cyclewear, while the classic fit and striking design keep things easy on the eye.
Café du Cyclists’ road-ready masterclass in performance wear aesthetics is the product of a ground-up, iterative approach to design that harks back to France’s workwear wonder years. ‘The “new wave” heritage in French fashion is interesting to me,’ says Remi, ‘because it goes against the vintage trend and offers legitimately modern design.’
With each piece designed, crafted and tested by Remi himself, Café du Cycliste offers up a glowing entry into a nascent, heritage-inflected performance category. With a strong lineup of stylish, performance wear and an almost tongue-in-cheek approach to the all-too-French, post-heritage scene, the brand’s offerings are niche, no doubt. But it’s a niche from which Café du Cycliste continues to inspire and innovate without half measures, without apology, and entirely without compromise. EJ
cafeducycliste.com
