Knack the Copenhagen Code

The cool Belgian lifestyle magazine supplement Knack Weekend was in Copenhagen recently and Cycle Chic and Copenhagenize feature in the mag. The photographer on the gig, Diego Franssens, took some cracking shots of the world's cycling capital.




To learn about what the man on the right is leaning on, here's an article about it on Copenhagenize.com. It's one of the ways we like to spoil our urban cyclists in this city.


Diego worked his photographic on yours truly, standing with my Bullitt cargo bike. Although I'm not sure if I prefer this other shot.

Stefan over at Belgium Cycle Chic translated some of the quotes:

‘Us Danes like it simple, esthetical and functional. It’s the case for furniture, can-openers and mobility. If the bicycle is the fastest way to get from point A to point B, then we’ll use it.’

His advice to cities who want to promote bicycles: ‘It really is all about spoiling the bicyclists.’

And finally, on the power of the bicycle: ‘It’s a universal thing: everybody learns to ride a bike at some point in his or her youth. It’s a rite de passage, and a beautiful symbol of anarchy and freedom.’

And only because I've been asked to by some readers, here are some fashion details:
Bike: Bullitt by Larry vs Harry.
Coat: Bruuns Bazaar
Shoes: Zara
Jeans: Bertoni
Scarf: No idea.
Underwear: Next
Socks: H&M

Cycle Chic in the Spanish Press

Cycle Chic's own Barcelona ambassador, Txell, featured in an in-depth article about our Cycle Chic movement in the Spanish national newspaper, El Pais. Every time we've hooked up in Barcelona she was riding her Brompton. Nice to see her groovy upright bicycle.

Lyn.

It's worth noting that the Culture of Fear regarding 'safety' equipment really is a regional phenomenon and not something you see many places.

Jaime Serramalera, designer.


Jordi Pedrosa, owner of menswear stores M69 next to 'Perez', his golden retriever.

Nothing Personal

Copenhagener A: Nothing personal. I'm not ignoring you. I just don't know you and, besides, I'm trying to cross the street.

Copenhagener B: Whatever.

I got asked once if cyclists wave at each other in Copenhagen, like they apparently do in other places. Ever tried to wave at ten thousand people on a morning commute to work? Nah. Me neither. :-)

In other non-related news, there's an interview about Cycle Chic on the hot trend website The Inside Source. Check it out before your other Facebooking Twitter friends stumble upon it and Dig it.

Vancouver Cycle Chic

Cycle Chic was featured in a blogpost by Douglas Todd, a columnist for The Vancouver Sun, in Canada. I figured I'd dig out my Cycle Chic [ish] photos from the city.





On this trip Wifealiciousness - our own Cycle Chic export - was 6 months pregnant with Lulu-Sophia. Cycling is virtually prescribed for pregnant women in Denmark so going for a ride was a must.

Wall Street Journal Goes Cycle Chic

Article in the Wall Street Journal about Cycle Chic, with focus on Paris.
'New Cyclist Styles Pedal Their Way Into Paris'

Nice to see the old WSJ with their finger on the pulse. You can read our take on Paris Cycle Chic and the transformation of the city right here.

Happy Birthday! Two Years With Cycle Chic

It's our birthday! Call someone and let them know!

Two years ago today, the Cycle Chic blog saw the light of day for the first time. The rest is history.

Wifealiciousness and I celebrate two special days in our relationship. The day we first kissed on a bench at 06:00 after a night out and the day we got married. It's kind of like that here on Cycle Chic.

As avid readers of this blog know, on November 14th, 2006, I took the photograph that started it all. On June 11th, 2007 I figured I'd start a blog, just to have my series of photographs gathered in one place.

Little did any of us know back then how the story would unfold. It certainly caught me by surprise, this sudden international interest in photographs of something that is completely normal for us in Copenhagen - well-dressed Copenhageners on bicycles.

In a way it's as though I started a vacuum cleaner blog because in Copenhagen our relationship to our bicycles is the same as our relationship to our vacuum cleaners. We all have them, we all use them, but we certainly don't think about them in the course of a day. Except when the bag needs to be changed/the tyre is flat. So for the sake of good order, here's my vacuum cleaner:


Before the international press got a hold the story, the first magazine to publish Cycle Chic photos was the always cool KBH Magasin. This was even before the blog started.

Back in the beginning of 2007 this spread was featured in a series about The Details of Copenhagen. You can see the evolution of the press coverage on the Press About The Blog page.

So what is 'Cycle Chic' apart from a useful phrase I coined to try and describe the fashionable art of riding bicycles in Copenhagen? Well, we've tried to sum it up in the Cycle Chic Manifesto, but sitting here two years on I suppose that Cycle Chic is a fantastic way to describe how bicycling used to be, how it is in many places and how it can be again elsewhere. The individual defines their own 'chic' and what is 'chic' in Copenhagen may not be 'chic' in Cork but the very simple act of riding around in your regular clothes on normal bicycles is something all of us know, all of us have tried [if only in childhood] and something that we can identify with. Cycle Chic is a mirror into which we can peer in order to see ourselves and our urban landscape in a new way. It's bicycle advocacy, sure. It's streetstyle, yeah. It's fashion on a bicycle, as opposed to bicycle fashion.

But Cycle Chic is urban planning and a way to redefine our cities and transform them in more liveable spaces.

It's about the bicycle in many ways but really, it's not only about the bicycle. The bicycle and infrastructure are merely tools for change in cities and towns.

Rereading this morning the page with testimonials from readers from the past two years is humbling and touching. Without you readers, this blog would be nothing. So thanks so much for visiting our little corner of the internet. It is also humbling to watch the list of blogs and articles inspired by Cycle Chic grow almost daily. It's on the right column, farther down, Copycats & Collaborators. Thanks to everyone involved.


You just KNEW that we couldn't have a birthday blogpost without my colleagues being involved. Lars, a film composer in real life, has been an epic contributor to Cycle Chic. He has really raised the photographic bar. He sent in a guest photo back in the day and was soon a regular contributor. Ironically, we found out that we both work in the film industry and that we have many things in common. So above is a birthday photo from Lars.


Marie [Velomama] blogs now and then, so here's a photo from her camera. I met Marie after she completed her thesis about "Everyday Modest Democracy - The Bicycle as a Symbol of Danishness". She had included Cycle Chic in the chapter about the iconic Cycling Girl in Danish history and how the tradition lives on here on the blog. We've been friends since. She now works for the City of Copenhagen's Bicycle Office, making our city even better for bicycles. Here's a birthday greeting from Marie:

Although my postings are sporadical, my heart has always been with this blog. I've been co-blogging here since early 2008. Once and again this blog has made me marvel at how the somewhat banal reality of Copenhagen's cycling culture - which we all take so much for granted here - can be an eyeopener for people elsewhere.

I find such poetry and reassurance in the fact that a popular, everyday phenomenon such as Copenhageners cycling around in their everyday clothes can actually inspire others and show the way forward towards more relaxed, livable and living cities all over the world.

Those of you who get a kick out of this blog: Find your own voice! Spread the message! Bicycles are for everyone! Big cheers, Velomama


And then there's Wifealiciousness. Susanne doesn't blog much here - she's too busy with her own style blog in Danish - but being my muse [and wife] she is a major part of this blog and I couldn't do any of this without her. She still gets interviewed about style and the blog, however.

In celebration of our birthday, a talented friend of mine, Rasmus Balstrøm, is penning some Cycle Chic illustrations. He's done these two and there are more on the way, which we'll be turning into posters. These two are available as postcards and the first one is also available as a mini print over at our online boutique.


The boy's got talent and has really captured the essence of cycling in Copenhagen. We're looking forward to his next batch of artwork.

Enough, already. It's our birthday! We shouldn't be sitting here blogging. It's time to celebrate. Thanks again to all our readers. We're looking forward to the next two years.

Copenhagen loves you.

YES! It's a celebration!

Dapper and Tiger

A dapper chap riding in concerto with collective transport near the City Hall Square. Wearing that ol' evergreen, the sixpence [as we call it in Danish]. Aka flat cap.


Great heels gracing the pedals of her cargo bike - a Sorte Jernhest [Black Iron Horse] - as she pedals past City Hall Square on the safe and separated bike lane.

Addendum:
One of our readers made it known to us that The Times was kind enough to select Copenhagen Cycle Chic as one of their Top 100 Blogs. We're in the 'Style' section on page three of the article. Here's a link to the front page. Are we chuffed? Damn straight.

Here's a little catch-up for the newbies:


Here's a photo from earilier this week during the morning rush hour in sub-zeros temps and snowfall. Some of the 400,000 cyclists who continue to cycle throughout the winter in Copenhagen:

Trio in the 'hood

I was cycling around Copenhagen with a friend from Japan, Hiro, and we spotted this Triobike - the Mercedes of cargo bikes. We stopped to have a look and while I was explaining how you drop off the kids at kindergarten, take off the bike, take out the wheel under the cargo bay and put it on the bike before riding off to work - the owner came back. She was kind enough to pose for a photo.

Hiro has the coolest skate and snowboard shop in Osaka - see more at Proty.com.

Read more about the Triobike at Copenhagenize.com or go straight to their website.

SPIN CYCLE
Women's Wear Daily - WWD - has a piece about luxury brands hopping onto the 'let's produce a bicycle' trend. I was asked for my opinion but upon reading the piece I realised... 'oh, shit... I'm a 'pundit''. :-)

BIKE SKIRT
Be sure to check out Bike Skirt - Girls, Bikes, Their City and lots of skirts. Funky little blog.

Design Ecology! Neo-Green Marketing Strategy

If you're interested in marketing, green issues and design [and can read German] there's a splendid book available called Design Ecology! - Neo-Green Marketing Strategy. Written by Jutta Nachwey and Judith Mair, the book covers the new wave of sustainable and enivironmental marketing here in the new millenium.

The Pitch
"Ecology and sustainability are moving increasingly into the focus of corporate communications. The old visual cliches of the eco-design have been exhausted. Communicating "Corporate Green" is important to many companies. With modern visual language and stylistic diversity, they have changed tactics to fit the modern world.

Design Ecology! presents 70 international brands, from small "self-made" labels to global brands, which exemplify the growing need for sustainability and enivironmental friendliness and the interest in social and ethical issues. All through communication and design strategies and listening to audience needs."

I'm pretty thrilled that Copenhagen Cycle Chic was chosen to be included in the book. The backbone of the blog is the photography, of course, but it has been fun developing a marketing strategy and visual identity. It's a rather unfinished work but a little design recognition warms the heart. And it's always fun to read a review of the design and the blog.

"Director Mikael Colville-Andersen refers to his streetstyle blog as 'Bike Advocacy' The photos, which incidentally are taken on the way to work, kindergarten or the supermarket, focus on the especially chic Copenhagen women on their bicycles.

Over 500,000 citizens cycle each day in the Nordic metropolis and clandestine bicycle capital of the world. Colville-Andersen exploits the wholly unpretentious and yet stylish coolness factor of the bicycle.

It is not a lyrca-clad Lance Armstrong imitation but rather cycling as a 'way of life'. Cozy, trendy and environmentally friendly.

One sees lively ladies in skirts and dresses with waving hair, high heels and together with her boyfriend, a dog in the basket or a child on the back. On an obesity list of 108 countries, Denmark tops the list with the fewest overweight people. Germany is at 61! If you ride to work each day, over a week the calories you have burned is the same as fasting for one day.

The blog has an historical angle, too, like the bicycle's role in the suffragette movement and it links to other witty sites like British Cycle Club 'Tweed', Fahrradsozialismus and there are guest photos of cool bicycle fashion from Berlin, Portland and Amsterdam.

The Cycle Chic concept is mainly communicated through photography and although the photos are often similar, devoted fans are never bored thanks to the diversity of the shots, different angles and the involvement of the urban environment. The main point of the flood of images: Cycling is a cult.

Mikael Colville-Andersen designed the logo [font: Gill Sans] and the entire blog, where he also uses Helvetica Condensed Bold. Since the photos are the primary focus, the logo should be simple and elegant, but as unobtrusive as possible. Nevertheless it is concise enough to be used in different variations on stickers, posters and t-shirts or on a mousepad featuring the Cycle Chic manifesto."

The book Design Ecology! is available on Amazon.de [Germany].

Copenhagen / Asia

It's always interesting to see how other cultures interpret Copenhagen. This Asian magazine - U Magazine - had a large feature on Copenhagen in a recent issue. The bicycle featured prominently and the journalist, Sa, took Cycle Chic to heart and had a bicycle in every stylish photo of herself. If I could hand out honorary Copenhagen Cycle Chic Citizenships, she would be the first proud recipient.

My shocking lack of Chinese language skills make it difficult to figure out where the magazine comes from. Malaysia? Taiwan? Anybody out there know? Do tell. Do tell.

Update: Thanks to our ever vigilant readers who have tracked the magazine to Hong Kong.