Karen Davidson: The Woman Behind Harley-Davidson Motor Clothes and Riding Style
9th May 2021
On Mother’s Day, here’s a little longer read for you. Let’s talk style, let’s talk fashion, let’s talk Motor Clothes, and let’s see who created it all for us. To repeat a famous motorcycle industry headline – “Cool is your middle name if you’re Karen Davidson of Harley-Davidson fame.”
Karen Davidson has a lifetime of living the Harley-Davidson experience, as the daughter of the legendary Willie G, sister to Bill, and of course the great-granddaughter of the company's co-founder, William A. Davidson. She began riding at the age of nine.
As creative director for Harley-Davidson's General Merchandise Department, she maintains Harley-Davidson's quality reputation and rich history as she directs design initiatives for H-D's apparel and accessory products. After college, where she transitioned from Fine Arts studies to Fashion Design, Karen worked her way up in the garment industry at a fabric, apparel and accessory company in New York to become director of marketing and design for apparel.
Karen officially joined the Harley-Davidson Motor Company in 1989, and brought all that experience to Harley-Davidson when it decided to expand its core offerings to its loyal customers by creating a branded line of apparel and accessories - Harley-Davidson Motor Clothes.
Each year Karen shapes the creative direction for apparel and accessory collections. But given her whole-of-life love of motorcycles and riding, Karen enjoys working with functional riding apparel too, and has been involved with the creative direction of all the leather collections since the launch of H-D Motor Clothes.
Here in New Zealand, and globally, the Motor Clothes division has been an outstanding success. We’d be certain that ALL of us in the Road and Sport extended customer family wear something – or many things - from the Factory range. The Council of Fashion Designers of America in New York has bestowed the prestigious Industry Award to Karen and Harley-Davidson for fashion influence.
Karen says that "the most important thing for me is to never to lose sight of our core customer. In keeping with our motorcycles' perfect blend of artistry in iron, Motor Clothes combines authenticity with rugged versatility." She lives in California and has established an office in one of the motorcycling 'hubs' of the U.S. Karen is dedicated to supporting Harley-Davidson USA MDA fundraising efforts and dealer events, and began the “Pink Label” range where a portion of every sale goes to charity.
And just like all of us, because Harley-Davidson is in her blood (really!), for relaxation Karen and her husband enjoy long distance motorcycle trips.