Stilettos on wheels: Cycling goes chic

Tag : lycra pants

Winnipeg ⬢ I often get around town by bike. So curious is this behaviour tothe Lexus-drivin', lunch bag-packin' crowd I encounter in suburbanWinnipeg, that it is often discussed, sometimes behind my back.When it is to my face, at least I can defend myself. "I am not ahippy freak," I say, oozing frustration and impatience, like JerrySeinfeld when he started carrying a man bag. "I'm being European."
Indeed, few hippies pedal around in four-inch Manolos and Birkinbags. But a growing number of cyclists do.
Fashion, they say, comes and goes in cycles. Now, it's cyclingthat's in fashion; the style brigade has taken up the two-wheelride and, in doing so, is changing the image of the cyclist.
"A different type of cyclist is emerging - a cyclist who is notconcerned about sport or how many gears they have on their bike butwho simply wants to get from A to B, and look good doing it," says29-year-old London cycle-chicster Caz Nicklin, who started cyclingin the English capital little more than a year ago and quicklybecame frustrated by cycling's "geeky image."
Cycle chic predated Chanel's 2007 $13,000 bicycle with custom-madequilted leather side satchels, or Gucci's $6,000 red bike, arelative bargain, released this summer.
Many trace the crystallization of the trend to prominent Britishmodel Agness Deyn. The Manchester-born runway strutter is endlesslyphotographed cycling to and from fashion shows astride herretro-looking Amsterdam Electra bike, wearing her trademark rabidchic.
The sight of a stylish person cycling pleasurably can improve anurban landscape immeasurably. "I'm always struck by how well itlooks together - an amazingly dressed person and a vintage bike,"says Winnipegger Catherine Arbour, an art student and mother ofthree, who rolls around town on a white Free Spirit roadster,dressed, on this day, in a straight knee-length skirt, V-necksweater and long thin scarf.
Europe, of course, is known for its bike culture, even among thecorporate class. The sight of a briefcase-toting 50-year-old suitcycling to work is as common as pâté at a picnic. But in NorthAmerica, despite biking's many credentials - eco-friendly,economical and a practical way to get exercise into your day -cycling, outside of sport activity, still lacks the thing that mostdrives our society: status.
But some highly esthetic bikes and a growing list ofSpandex-spurning Web sites dedicated to stylish cyclists isshifting the template. I recently found more than 50 Web sitespromoting the fashion/cycling relationship - for example,amsterdamize.com, copenhagencyclechic.com, and Caz Nicklin'scyclechic.co.uk.
Nicklin launched London-based cyclechic.co.uk in November, 2007, tohighlight cycling's "style potential," she says. "Cycling can be anextremely graceful and ladylike mode of transport. Though thepublic's perceptions is often Lycra and chunky calves, women canlook especially elegant and graceful on a lovely vintage bike, witha great outfit on."
Copenhagencyclechic.com publishes daily photos of stylish cyclistsspotted around town. Amsterdamize.com (subtitle: "100% Cycle ChicGuaranteed Lycra-free") does, too, though it also has a politicalangle, introducing us, for example, to Japanese cycling mothers andtheir tradition of Sannin-nori - three on a bike, one kid in front,one kid behind - pointing out how politically influential they havebecome. Stateside, there is urbancyclechic.com ("Make your street acatwalk"). And Scott Schuman, who photographs stylish pedestriansfor his blog, The Sartorialist, has been adding cyclists to hissite simply because on his daily outings he has noticed growingnumbers of very fashionable ones.
I've spent hours observing stylish bike culture myself, especiallyin Paris, my second home. Cyclists there look so preposterouslyperfect as they cycle around town everyday, past I.M. Pei's glasspyramid in front of the Louvre or the Tuileries garden, in theirpencil skirts and stilettos, that you'd be forgiven for thinkingthat they were taking part in a Peter Lindbergh photo shoot forVogue.
I cycle watch in Montreal, too, officially a chic-cycle city now,thanks to its excellent system of bike lanes and natural style.And, also, of course, in Amsterdam, which vies with Copenhagen ascycle capital of the free world.
Amsterdam has the fashion slave's favourite bike, the iconic "situp and beg," or Oma (Dutch for "granny") black roadsters.
I've been obsessed with these Dutch bikes ever since I first rentedone years ago in Amsterdam. The bikes are so high, they allow youto peer over cars; you have a bit of a king-of-the-world thinggoing on when you ride them. But there is a slightly comic BusterKeatony aspect, too, because you pedal sitting ramrod straight.
In Amsterdam, I love watching various bike-passengerconfigurations: the popular tandem, with the girl sittingsidesaddle on the handlebars, for example, or the more racy threeon a bike. I once saw a guy reading a book while he pedaled his"sit up and beg." I wanted to own one so badly, I rerouted throughAmsterdam and, between flights, beelined to a bike store in town,bought and boxed one up and flew it back with me to Canada. (Soonafter, I learned that Jorg & Olif, a Vancouver bike shop and anearly adopter of cycle chic, sold its own brand of Oma bikes.)
Deyn's Amsterdam Electra is a new version of the vintagesit-up-and-beg bike, and is sometimes called the North AmericanDutch bike, but any vintage style will do; the main thing is toleave the curved-handlebar 10-speeds to the Lycra crowd. "It'svintage Schwinns or Raleighs, three- or five-speeds, with highhandle bars," says Chung Pai, owner of Landmark Bicycle in NewYork, that city's go-to cycle-chic shop.
It's important to understand that the vintage style is not arecycling statement, but purely an esthetic choice. For instance,the other day, Pai sold a five-speed Schwinn to a fashion-consciousbusinesswoman. "She told me she wanted to commute to work on herbike and wear a dress," he says. "She already has a road racer athome."
Models, Pai says, like sit-up-and-beg bikes because, like theDutch, models are tall. But the style is also eminentlyfashion-friendly.
Vancouver's Jorg & Olif was started by two locals who had livedin Europe. They opened a shop back home in 2004, selling their ownbrand name of Dutch bike (made in Holland; $645 for the classicone-speed; and $1,495 for a more hill-friendly eight-speed). JaneCox, J&O's co-founder and creative director, says they sell thebikes more to fashion and design stores than sporting shops, aswell as to customers who, until now, really didn't cycle much.
"The whole concept about this bike is that it doesn't compromiseyour style," she says. J&O bikes have internal hub gears, soyou don't have to worry about getting grease on your Marc Jacobs orPradas, skirt and coat guards, and mud flaps to protect shoes. Coxsays the full fenders allow her to cycle wearing a white coat inwinter and the chain guard allows her to wear flared pants withoutthe need for unfashionable bike clips.
Jorg & Olif also sells the box seats for kids that attachbetween the handle bars, a common sight on European bikes. Seeingthem for the first time, North Americans might think they look likegrounds for a call to a child protection agency. But Cox believesthey are preferable to the back-of-the-bike attachments. "You areat the same level, and they are positioned so that if you everfall, you can see the kids," she says. "And you can converse withthem, too."
Some yummy mummies are also trading in their SUVs for custom-madeadult tricycles that look like pedicabs to transport kids andgroceries.
As a (bad) rule, cycle chicsters don't wear helmets (too nerdy),but fashion-forward versions are being introduced. Cox, who admitsshe never wore a helmet until she started cycling with her toddlerson, now sells a Jackie O equestrian-style helmet in black orglossy red. "People who don't bike have stopped me and asked mewear I got my hat," she says.
Indeed, many of the cycle-chic Web site owners have also launchedauxiliary online shops selling accessories and offering fashiontips.
"This fall, the one must-have item is a cape, an ideal alternativeto a coat for a cyclist," says Nicklin. "They don't restrict yourback or shoulders as some coats can. Most important, they lookfabulous."