I recently put out a Call For Papers asking for your best cycle chic submissions. I received some lovely entries and have added some of my favorite cycle chic images from the interwebs to share with you as well. Enjoy the following eye candy that more than proves how fashion, fitness, and eco-friendly living go beautifully together:
The lovely Miss Sarah, who blogs about style and cycling on Girls and Bicycles (among motherhood and other things), has been showing fellow Canadians a thing or two about traveling in style. I love this gorgeous dress and that she’s not afraid to don it while cycling to her brunch date.
Similarly, the lovely Cosmo who co-blogs at Lost Angeles Cycle Chic, proves that showing up on a bike for your date is just the thing to do. I’m sure you’re date was as impressed as we are! (You can also find Cosmo’s fashion blog at I Do It Cosmo Style).
Fellow German-based Kasmeneo shows off his wonderful cycling and everyday style in his Flickr set and in the Velocouture group pool. Kasmeneo’s funky and wonderfully color-driven outfits not only question the notion that cycling can’t be stylish but also challenges gendered fashion as a construct.
Trisha and Dottie prove that you can have fun discovering a new town by bike and maintain your sense of fashion with this snapshot from their trip to Littlehampton, England. While Trisha is rocking the skinny jeans with a fabulous ruffle trim blouse, Dottie is looking very chic in a lovely dress and scarf combo.
And speaking of biking in dresses, check out this rockin’ picture sent in by Gee from Curitiba, Brazil. Gee’s blog Curitiba Cycle Chic aims to demonstrate, in her own words, “sustainable mobility with style.” Right on!
Brazilians aren’t the only ones who cycle in chic dresses: San Francisco moms do it too! If you’re familiar with cycling blogs, then you’re already well aware of Change Your Life: Ride a Bike! written by Adrienne (above) and Meligrosa (below). This is my favorite picture of Adrienne in her stylish wrap dress with her son on the back of the bike. I think it more than exudes confidence, style, sustainable living practices and good role modeling.
Not only is Meligrosa the talented co-blogger of Change Your Life: Ride a Bike! but you can also find her wonderful photography and chronicles of her rides through San Francisco at Bikes and the City.
Moving further north to the chilly climate of Minnesota, brings us to one of my favorite Velocouturists Mamichan. Biking to work in the busy city of Minneapolis, Mamichan proves that you can stay true to your professional wardrobe and still get around by bike. Mamichan has also committed to sustainable fashion choices by supporting local designers and crafters, showcasing her unique and wonderful style choices in her Flickr set.
Making yet another geographical jump, brings us to the talented writer and style blogger Jane in England, who is also likely to be found wearing a gorgeous dress while commuting around town on her bike. Jane, of the one-year-shopping-ban-project, also tackles sustainable living practices by using her bike whenever possible.
The lovely and always colorfully dressed Franca of Scotland has also been posting increasing images of her with her bike, venturing into the world of everyday dressing while bike commuting. If you’re looking for someone to inspire some awesomely bold and beautiful color combinations in your own approach to fashion, then Franca’s blog Oranges and Apples is a must-read for you.
I myself have recently rediscovered how much fun a bike can be and have challenged my own assumptions about the incongruences of fashion and fitness. You can find my cycle chic posts here, to which I hope to be able to add more to in the near future (am still bike-less in Munich but have received several offers of bike loans). I also want to direct you to the Velocouture Flickr group if you’re not already familiar with it, which is a constant source of inspiration, as well as the many style and bike blogs out there which are easily found by perusing any of the blogrolls of the cycle chic blogs named in this post.
What I especially loved about compiling this collection of images is the internationality of its sources: England, Brazil, US, Scotland, Germany, Canada… I love seeing how all over the world people are embracing sustainable living practices and consciously posting their efforts for others to feel inspired. Finding these examples on the internet pushed me to pull out my long neglected bike and attempt my first bike-in-a-skirt adventure. I hope that this post will similarly serve as a starting point or inspiration for someone else reading it and that it will add to the ever growing velocouture and eco-conscious living movement. S.
Hmmm… none of the photos show helmets. I’m in Australia, and as far as I know every state here requires cyclists to wear helmets. It’s hard to look cute on a date with helmet hair!
My thoughts exactly, notmensa!
By the way, I only just discovered this blog but am *loving* it – keep up the good work!
Notmensa and Ajbw – I think a lot of bike commute/fashion bloggers remove their helmet for their pictures. I know Sarah of Girls and Bicycles, Trisha and Dottie of Let’s Go RIde a Bike, and Mamichan all wear helmets and just take them off for their photos. I do the same.
Different countries/regions have differing laws about wearing a helmet and there is a lot of lively discussion about that on the internet on varying bike blogs. I made my choice to wear a helmet when I bike and I have found that it doesn’t affect my hair all that much. S.
Thanks so much for including me and your kind words about my blog!
Like S says, many people do wear helmets, including me, but don’t include them in the picture. I always wear a helmet when going out on the road, and I also don’t find it affects my hair too much. I wear it because cyclists often get into hairy situations here in Edinburgh and I know several people who’ve had accidents that could have been nothing at all had they worn a helmet.
But in other cities, where there is a critical mass of cyclists, drivers are used to dealing with bikes, and there are more cycle lanes, it can be perfectly fine to go helmet-less!
I love all of these pictures and am still finding myself impressed with how people keep up with fashion and ride a bike! I think it’s great and if it helps more people try and go that route, way to go for the environment!
notmensa — I always wear a helmet! But you’re right, it doesn’t work well for a cute photo so I take it off for the photo.
thank you academichic for featuring one of my pics again. you ladies are the sweetest.
Re: helmets…
I have short hair, but I used to have longer hair and know that it can be a challenge to keep neat under a helmet, but in cold weather a scarf tied over and around long hair helps a lot–you may have to finger-style your hair when the helmet and scarf comes off, but it keeps it from getting utterly whalloped by the helmet and prevents creases in weird places. For the shorter-tressed among us, I’ve been wearing a crocheted hat under my helmet lately to keep me warm in this cold Chicago weather, and I’ve found it keeps my short style neater when the helmet comes off as well…something about it being squishier than the inside of my helmet is, I think.
I just want to say, also, that while helmet laws vary from state to state and country to country, and I did regularly bike sans helmet when I lived in Japan, having friends severely injured in bike accidents has made me more convinced than ever that helmets are just a good idea, whether or not they’re required. A coworker of mine was hit by a truck last spring, knocked off his bike, and run over–the truck’s wheel went over his head, and if he hadn’t been wearing a big heavy skate helmet, he would certainly have been killed (recovery wasn’t exactly a picnic as-is). So I vote for wearing a helmet even if it does mess up your hair a little–after all, safety’s smart, and smart is sexy, right?
Major kudos to linking all this up–I love this blog and I love seeing how other people handle biking in style. Thanks!
Thanks for the shout out on this beautiful blog! And thanks too for the defense on the helmets. It’s right there, in my basket. But I respect everybody’s choice to wear or not to wear (I think safety while cycling is largely dependent in the cycling culture in any given city, not solely exclusive to helmets or not).
S*
Love the posts and that dress in the first picture is to die for.
I will take on board the comments about the helmets though.
I don’t think I have worn that dress again! I should pull it out and wear it with my high heeled boots (once our typhoon rain stops. How does a typhoon hit San Francisco? : ) And just to throw it in with everyone else, I do not wear a helmet.
Amazing style from all of them- especially the women who cycle in dresses. I am still in awe.
Miss Sarah, don’t worry about the helmet! Helmet laws have stopped a lot of people cycling and have done nothing for head injury rates, see http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=16565131 (Robinson’s work uses the best scientific methods, all available control groups and so on.) It appears that helmets break easily, but don’t absorb the impact, see the engineers quoted at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_helmet#Criticism_of_current_standards.3B_new_designs. A broken helmet has simply failed, and the widespread anecdotes on the theme of “a helmet saved my life” seem to owe more to wishful thinking than to science.
Helmet propaganda relies on overemphasizing the very small dangers of cycling and seldom seems to emphasize its large benefits. At my moderately advanced age it’s far too dangerous not to cycle – regular cycling, Danish style, not too far, not too fast, nearly halves the death rate, see http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/160/11/1621. Taking up moderate exercise is about as beneficial as giving up smoking. Bicycling is good for health, but bike helmets don’t seem to be.
Thanks for the kind words and including me in your post! It’s so great to see such a stylish selection of cyclists from all over the world.
My personal commute to work is almost completely flat along the river bank. As I’m a bit on the lazy side, I have great respect for people cycling in hilly towns like San Francisco or Edinburgh!
Considering the helmet question, I don’t wear one and completely agree with Richard.
Great to get some inspiration. I tried cycling in a pencil skirt – possible but not comfortable. Have you seen these helmets? http://www.yakkay.com/ I think they have potential.
all are lovely pictures;
the helmet in these photographs may looks boring..
I am so jealous of Miss Sarah’s wardrobe.
I also do own a helmet but I don’t always wear it.I usually only wear it when I ride with my daughter who has to wear one by law. My hair makes finding a helmet that fits properly pretty much impossible. I feel the opposite of safe in a helmet for that reason.
Hi academic ladies!! thanks so much for the props.
Why is it that because we are in dresses and bikes, oh the helmet must not make you look ‘cute’ – PFFFT.
Get it over with and ride your f-ing bike. Doesnt matter what you ride and / or how you ride it. I wear dresses, have a loud mouth and my hair looks the same on or off the bike. I could give a rat’s butt if I have helmet hair.
One of the benefits of riding is that you learn to oversee every judgment and observation as such. There is always excuses to point out some kind of flaw.
I wear one even if not ‘posing’ for my own photos (http://tinyurl.com/yf4snhg) and I dont wear one, when I feel like it. Done?!
I’m not out there to impress anyone, I prove a point that the bicycle, even at my slow pace, is the most efficient and sustainable way of transportation and that if I can do it, most people can. But if someone rides a bike everyday, they know this.
btw/ lovely blog and nice set. Happy to discover new blogs <3
Very cool! But how odd not to see anything from Copenhagen or the guy who started this entire Cycle Chic movement at copenhagen cycle chic… kind of like posting photos of sand dunes and not including any from the Sahara…
Oh dang, I missed that call for papers! I would have much preferred to attend your Symposium than my stupid neuroscience one. The ladies are looking beautiful!
Lovey post! You and this group are such an inspiration.
Love Meli’s dress with the red belt – great style.
Gee’s photo (Curitiba Cycle Chic) is brilliant!
“kind of like posting photos of sand dunes and not including any from the Sahara”
I like your analogy, but it seems this post presents the leaders of cycle chic/velocouture in developing bike-cultures.