@smudge - "you've seen me then"
No, I haven't (we don't have avatars ;)
how do you know I wont find your appearance tres chic, perhaps even devlishly <insert compliment here>
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
What is Cycle Chic?
(62 posts)-
Posted 14 years ago #
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Behrmann & Bosshard 1938
Posted 13 years ago # -
Of course cycle chic can also be define by the original Cycle Chic Manifesto:
- I choose to cycle chic and, at every opportunity, I will choose Style over Speed.
- I embrace my responsibility to contribute visually to a more aesthetically pleasing urban landscape.
- I am aware that my mere prescence in said urban landscape will inspire others without me being labelled as a 'bicycle activist'.
- I will ride with grace, elegance and dignity.
- I will choose a bicycle that reflects my personality and style.
- I will, however, regard my bicycle as transport and as a mere supplement to my own personal style. Allowing my bike to upstage me is unacceptable.
- I will endeavour to ensure that the total value of my clothes always exceeds that of my bicycle.
- I will accessorize in accordance with the standards of a bicycle culture and acquire, where possible, a chain guard, kickstand, skirt guard, fenders, bell and basket.
- I will respect the traffic laws.
- I will refrain from wearing and owning any form of 'cycle wear'. The only exception being a bicycle helmet - if I choose to exercise my freedom of personal choice and wear one. (and make an effort to understand the science of helmets)
Also see the Edinburgh Cycle Chic blog and see if there is anyone you know on it...
Posted 13 years ago # -
"I will endeavour to ensure that the total value of my clothes always exceeds that of my bicycle."
I think if I wore both my suits, all three pairs of cycling baggies (though hidden underneath the suits), my old walking boots (bought in 1992 but which beat my current trainers by £8) and my hat I'd still need to buy a pair of £70 underpants to get my clothing-value up to the purchase-cost of my bike.
Posted 13 years ago # -
even my old-unloved-stolen dawes 301 was worth more than my whole wardrobe....
EDIT: Have the velominati read this?
Posted 13 years ago # -
That manifesto is quite fun but..
- I choose to cycle chic and, at every opportunity, I will choose Style over Speed.
Not only am i no where near cool enough too pull it off, if i wanted to go slow i'd
take the carwalkPosted 13 years ago # -
Perhaps Cycling Chic is effortless cycling.
When we are getting from one place to another without appearing to try. In this sense its not what we wear or what we ride, but how we wear and how we ride.
I was out in Turin when I took this, and was unusually quick enough and lucky enough with my phone camera as he cycled past.
Nick
Posted 13 years ago # -
What would Ron Mael do?
Posted 13 years ago # -
Ron Mael? On a tandem with his brother? Then The Sparks would fly. That Turin guy is way chic-er than any of the rather crumpled dudes and dudesses on Edinburgh cycle chic. I found this way back in 1987 when I moved to Edinburgh from glasgow. Too many grungy hippies, not enough knee socks. Now I wear a lurid orange tank top whilst cycling and get abused by motorists
Posted 13 years ago # -
Ron Mael is -274 Celsius.
In the Seduction of Ingmar Bergman he even speaks!
Posted 13 years ago # -
I think that spoils it - speaking. You are saying he is absolute zero? Kelvin Cool? I will be singing bits from THis Town Ain't Big Enough For the Both OF Us all night now
Posted 13 years ago # -
Absolute zero is -273. Ron Mael is cooler than that.
They're so cool they even did their own cover versions on the Plagiarism album.
Zoo time is she and you time
The mammals are your favourite type, and you want her tonight
Heartbeat, increasing heartbeat
You hear the thunder of stampeding rhinos, elephants and tacky tigersPosted 13 years ago # -
@gembo Now I wear a lurid orange tank top whilst cycling and get abused by motorists
Somehow I don't think you can blame that on moving to Edinburgh!
Posted 13 years ago # -
@crowriver
Somehow I don't think you can blame that on moving to Edinburgh!
I would say that it is linked. I lived in Edinburgh 1987-1990 then moved back to Glasgow and my friend who was employing me said I could keep the long hair but would have to lose the goatee and moustache. Living in Edinburgh had turned me into an old hippy. I moved back again in 1992 and after Auld Reekie had worked its influence on me again, I bought the tank top
Posted 13 years ago # -
Or more correctly, "What you wear on your bicycle says about you". I was hoping for sarcasm and humour directed at unicyclists and recumbamentalists and things. :-)
PS Who is Ron Mael?
Posted 13 years ago # -
I couldn't be bothered reading the whole thing, as it largely seems to be regurgitations of numerous other articles on the subject (albeit for the mainstream press purposes of educating and entertaining the "general public").
What I do object to about this whole "cycling chic" thing is the insinuation that if you opt to - shock horror - wear some cycling specific clothing, particularly made from that dirty word "lycra", is you somehow have not put as much thought and care into choosing what it is you are going to wear as the lady in heels and with a tweed trilby on. Personally I really couldn't care less what people wear, I wear what is comfortable and practical for my cycling needs. If people want to feel smug on the bike because of what they are wearing then that's fine. I'll feel equally smug when I clomp round Waitrose in my road shoes, lycra, shades and Campy cap and others will feel I look equally out of place.
Rapha bridges the gap between the girl in the summer dress and the automaton in the velodrome, and is as highly constructed as many designer labels.
By which I think the author means "it's a ****ing rip off and doesn't perform any better or worse than its equivalents at half the price". I think that's my beef with the article. It's written by a fashion journalist, where cost is immaterial and it's all about how the product looks. Not how it functions in the wind, the rain, the snow and the sun and how well it stands up to oil and dust and snagging in chains and rubbing on the saddle thousands of times a day.
Horses for courses though.
But anyone who buys a Chanel bike at that price deserves nothing but ridicule.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Ron Mael is Russell Mael's brother. Together they are a band called Sparks.
Ron writes the songs and looks a wee bit like Hitler or Chaplin would had either of them been a member of of a very cool rock band.
Sparks have been going since the early '70s and still manage to surprise and delight.
Two years ago they played in London for a few weeks. Each night was different and devoted to one of their albums. Their recent "Abduction of Ingmar Bergman" might be turning into a film.
Posted 13 years ago # -
I share Kaputnik's views on "cycle chic". I would also add that despite all the high falutin rhetoric about freedom, fashion and self expression that there is something slightly misogynistic about the whole thing. Look at sites such as Copenhagen Cycle Chic and they are dominated by photos of attractive young women (not all photos - but they represent by far the biggest single group) - statistically quite a small group of cyclists in many countries.
I would argue that the fact that the article in The Independent focuses on cycling women backs this up.
I know people (myself included) like looking at attractive members of one/other or both sexes, but I don't really think there is any need to dress this up as casting an asthetes eye over a particular kind of cyclist or that cycle chic websites represent the beginning of a worldwide movement that will liberate cities from both motorised traffic and brightly coloured cycle clothing.
Posted 13 years ago # -
@Morningsider I would also add that despite all the high falutin rhetoric about freedom, fashion and self expression that there is something slightly misogynistic about the whole thing. Look at sites such as Copenhagen Cycle Chic and they are dominated by photos of attractive young women
One could say the same about the fashion industry in general. I think this is a conscious decision to use fashion industry techniques to persuade ordinary people, especially women, that they can ride a bike in normal clothes as part of everyday life and still look chic.
Personally I don't see anything wrong with that. It's an attempt to engage with the mainstream rather than enthusiastic eccentrics like us. It may indeed involve what can arguably be called stereotypical or even sexist (misogynistic seems a bit strong) images of women, but then it is no different from most advertising we see every day. If it is effective in increasing uptake of cycling and helping to remove the activity from 'outgroup' status, then some mild gender bias seems a small price to pay.
Posted 13 years ago # -
I'm not sure that men taking photographs of strangers in the street and pretending it is about fashion would have the veneer of acceptability if the women were walking instead of cycling?
Kaputnik and others can join me in my pledge to ride whatever bike I want, however fast I want and wearing whatever clothes I want and not to give a **** about what others think!
Posted 13 years ago # -
@ Min I'm not sure that men taking photographs of strangers in the street and pretending it is about fashion would have the veneer of acceptability if the women were walking instead of cycling?
Ever heard of street photography?
Not that there could not be objections to this form, but it is pretty well established, 'respectable' even. Some get shown in galleries. Here are a few examples from the wikiland.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Kaputnik and others can join me in my pledge to ride whatever bike I want, however fast I want and wearing whatever clothes I want and not to give a **** about what others think!
Cycle geek?
I'm in :)
Posted 13 years ago # -
@crowriver There's also a long tradition of people trying to excuse leching and perving by claiming the protective respectable mantle of an official genre, which makes for some fun forum arguments every now and then on the photoblog site I use.
Posted 13 years ago # -
I am no expert but anyone who I have seen touted as a good street photographer has taken photographs of all kinds of scenes including all kinds of people and not just focused very heavily on attractive young women on bikes. It is somewhat fetishistic and rather creepy. And "hold my bicycle while I kiss your girlfriend" WTF?
"Cycle geek?
I'm in :) "
I could start a cyclegeek blog where I don't take any photographs of anyone. :-DPosted 13 years ago # -
Maybe I should point out here that I am not defending the casualness with which Copenhagen Cycle Chic (the "original" to which I presume people are referring) perpetuates gender stereotypes and the objectification of women. What I do say is that if one takes account of the genre(s) which its output refers to (fashion and street photography) then it doesn't seem particularly better nor worse than, say, most fashion photography and a fair proportion of so-called street photography. As far as I can see all the ladies are fully clothed and there are arguably positive aspects to such representations: displaying female independence, confidence, etc.
The originator of the blog appears to be a film-maker who, other than his passions for cycling and
young ladies with tight clothes onsartorial elegance, seems to be a fairly conventional opportunistic media type: self publicising/aggrandising (note the "consultancy" he has set up!); shallow/superficial/obsessed with appearances; little in the way of critical self-awareness.It just so happens this particular media type has managed to catch the attention of both the cycling and fashion worlds. Some people even appear to think that what he has started is "cool"; others no doubt see it as "useful" (eg. politicians, other media types, fashion retailers, cycle retailers). Hence he can get away with mildly risqué straplines and a selection of (largely inoffensive) photos of pretty young things on bikes, most of whom seem to be blondes.
His selection process for publication may be based on some "sartorial elegance" criteria which rule out scruffy blokes in t-shirts/baggies/kagoules. But it's also I think a deliberate strategy, rather similar to that of advertising: present images of attractive, well-dressed, "cool" people and by association your product becomes attractive and aspirational. In this case the "product" is cycling as an everyday form of transportation (rather than as a sport or a hobby for enthusiasts).
Whether we agree with this strategy is rather beside the point. We are not the target audience for this advertising: Joe and Joanna Q. Public are.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Probably all of you have seen this already, but if not, it does make for an incisive comment on some myths and stereotypes of cycling, sartorial as much as anything else. I think it's called "looking the part"...
[+] Embed the video | Video Download Get the Flash Video Posted 13 years ago # -
"Whether we agree with this strategy is rather beside the point. We are not the target audience for this advertising: Joe and Joanna Q. Public are. "
I can't help feeling that there is a problem with the idea of selling bikes as a fashion item only for the under 25s (though I note that men can be of any age) and that is that adherents will either get bored quickly and turn to the next fashionable thing or reach 26. Then you are back to square 1.
We'll see..(Re the video- there's nothing wrong with having a steel frame from 1988! :-P)
Posted 13 years ago # -
Cycling Chic turned into Cycling Drip today...
Posted 13 years ago # -
Min tell the truth, you are a closet 'chicer is that not you gracing the pages of the esteemed embra blog :)
Posted 13 years ago #
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