Itty Bitty City - How Children See Our Cities

At yesterday's Art Adventure launch for Art Month Sydney, children were invited to create their own Itty Bitty City and the results were fantastic.

This particular scene caught my attention - just think, if children were in charge of our urban design what utopia there would be.  Roads with nothing but bicycles and ice cream vans and is that a small rooftop bar I see????

Brilliant!

Some Cool Kids on Their Cool Bikes For the Weekend

I think we'll be hearing more from Simon - he's just built a brilliant prop bike for a new Opera Australia production of La bohème.  The guys in workshop are a damn talented bunch.

And who doesn't love a candy pink chopper ?

Sydney Cycle Chic Does Art Month Sydney!

Now in it's second year, Art Month Sydney is a brilliant festival celebrating the city's thriving contemporary visual arts scene.
Each week during March the focus will be on a different one of Sydney's diverse arts precincts.  From Waterloo to Woollahra, Marrickville to Potts Point, some 80 or more galleries and venues will fling open their doors with exhibitions, artist talks and studio tours.

In a first this year, the festival is also introducing weekly curated bicycle tours of each precinct.  Brilliant idea.  Can't think of a better way to explore the city's galleries than by bike.  So we are very excited to be taking part as we join with Art Cycle for the Surry Hills ride on March 19.

In true Cycle Chic style, you can expect a slow ride through the back streets of Surry Hills as we wind our way from Charles Hewitt Gallery, via Flinders Street Gallery and First Draft up to Chalk Horse for a series of gallery talks.  With any luck we'll have time to explore some street art and stop for a quick coffee en route...

Rides are free but you do need to register - details here - and make sure you check out the rest of the festival too - a whole month of art events?  We call it artalicious!

We've had some fun doing some pre-festival filming - yep, we always ride our bikes in art galleries, we're crazy like that!

What the *#@* is Cycle Chic™?

I've been getting a little feisty over at Sarah Wilson's blog today in response to the replies she received on her post What to Wear On A Bike - Part 2.

Surely we have all earned the right to wear whatever we like, on or off our bicycles without judgement?
Why is it that some women find it necessary to dismiss frocked up female riders as frivolous and silly because they sometimes like to wear dresses and heels while riding?
I wear whatever I would wear normally and get about very well thank you and yes if some days I wear f*$@ off heels, so what?

Over in Copenhagen and indeed many places in the world, women of varying ages ride in all manner of clothes as these photographs from Copenhagen Cycle Chic so beautifully illustrate.

It is in emerging bicycle cultures that we are constantly forced to explain and justify our clothing choices.

Which brings me to that question I am asked so often - "what is cycle chic™?"

When Mikael Colville-Andersen first coined the term back in 2007, he was using it as a way to describe his fellow Copenhageners as they went about their daily business on their bicycles.  Devoid of any "cycling gear", just in regular clothes, doing regular things, a concept that was and still is to some degree, thought of as a little extraordinary.

In Sydney, we do cycle chic our way, we're not Copenhagen after all, but the aim is absolutely the same.

To show how the bicycle can be "an integral, respectable and feasible transport form, free of sports clothes and gear, and how it can play a vital role in increasing the life quality in cities.

... to highlight that bike culture is an effortless pursuit. No lycra needed. No fancy gear. Just get out and ride. Style over Speed. Man or Woman."

    

  

The photograph below is not overtly glamorous. The "photograph that launched a million bicycles" as it has become known, is just a nice spontaneous shot of someone probably heading off to work one day.

As is this - the eminently majestic stylist Catherine Baba on the job in Paris. And frankly, if she can ride in those heels more power to her!!!

So when people say "I want to ride but I don't have anything to wear?", I paraphrase Mikael and say "of course you do, wear what you're wearing right now".

I like this cheeky photograph from Copenhagen Cycle Chic.

So at Sydney Cycle Chic when we get together for a ride, we come as we are.

We don't NEED to dress up to prove a point - or do we?

"Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel...the picture of free, untrammelled womanhood." - Susan B. Anthony, American Suffragist, 1896.

Growers Market Chic

Sydney's foodie scene is huge and it seems growers markets are cropping up everywhere.  One of my favorites is Everleigh Markets, every Saturday at Carriageworks.
Apart from being a great place to catch up with friends over a coffee and croque madame from Bird Cow Fish, it's produce heaven and what better way to transport your organic fruit and veg and Yulla chocolate mousse than by bicycle?!?

I met the brilliant Allison there on her Electra Townie.  A woman after my own heart, she tweets about sustainability (@urbanaffect) and has a great consultancy specialising in urban and social planning - check out her website here.

SHEBAM! POW! BLOP! WIZZ! - Cycle Chic Does Gainsbourg

Summer in Sydney's just not Summer without a trip (or two) to an outdoor cinema.  After being rained off once we braved temperamental January with a repeat visit to Moonlight Cinema to see French film Gainsbourg.
Interesting film, flimsy characterisations but gorgeous to spend an evening under the stars with a gaggle of cycle chicsters.
We did a little photoshoot to amuse ourselves (and the candy bar guys!) before the film started and awarded Miss Phoebe with the Cycle Chic Calendar for exhibiting some pretty sexy Parisian inspired cycle chic.  Yep she even came with a bottle of Chanel No.5 as a prop!

   

   

Bondi Bike Cafe Bliss

I love doing the school drop-off as I get to spend time blogging in Katipo on Bondi Road aka coolest cafe bar in the 'hood.

Not only do they do a mean latte and lemon/yogurt cake but the owner Ben, together with brothers Marcel and Francis have a passion for fixing up old bikes.  Every day there is a different one hanging up with the vintage film posters.

Watch this space for news of their upcoming auction.  If you're in the market for a fixie, a chopper or a vintage ladies step-through, you won't want to miss this!!!

French Film Cycle Chic!

Great shot of Jeanne Moreau and Henri Serre from Francois Truffaut's classic film Jules et Jim courtesy of our favorite vintage bike photo site Rides a Bike.

A little gallic chic to get us in the mood for tomorrow's Cycle Chic ride to Moonlight Cinema to see French biopic Gainsbourg.

Hope you can join us - bicycle or no bicycle!

RSVP to the facebook page or email so we know you're coming.

A gorgeous Copenhagen Cycle Chic Calender will go to the most suitably attired chic rider there so don't be shy to show your chic'ey side...

Sydney Bicycles From Morning to Night

       

Started the day with commuter bicycles on the ferry this morning and ended it drinking with bicycles in the laneway beside Blender Gallery.  Summer in Sydney - hot, hot, hot!