Cycle Chic Fashion Show - Hungarian Style

Our lovely and hard-working friends at Cycle Chic Hungary just sent us this film, hot off the catwalk. They understand the concept. Bicycles and Fashion, not bicycle fashion.

There are great and inspirational films encouraging people to cycle to work over at Copenhagenize.

Estonian Bicycles With Music

Thanks to one of our readers, Priit, for this wonderful music video from Estonia. Filmically it's gorgeous and even without understanding Estonian, the melody is cool. Reminds us of our friends at Estonia Cycle Chic.

The artist is the group called August Hunt.

Two Bicycle Films

Here are a couple of lovely bicycle-related films.
Above is "Marry Me". Little girl likes little boy. Little boy likes BMX bike. Something has to give. Directed by Michelle Lehman.


“Va Fa Napoli, Hipster” premiered at two film festivals, The Coney Island Film Festival and The Williamsburg International Film Festival.

Late Summer Hat

The hats of summer linger on. And thank goodness for that.

And for an entertaining film about Sherwood Forest Cycle Chic, check out this link for some Robin Hood on bicycles fun.

Bicycle Flash Mob in Belgium

Brilliant flash mob in the Central Train Station in Brussels featuring... bicycles!

Thanks to Lars for the link.

Beauty Bicycles from Sweden!

Here's a vintage ad for Swedish bike brand Monark, from the 1950's. The Swedish nickname for these upright ladies bicycles was 'beauty bicycles' or 'beautycyklar'. Doesn't that fit perfectly with Cycle Chic?! Wonderful.

Check out the lovely skirtguard on the first bicycle featured. When the lady at 0:20 walks out of the back, they compare the lines of her jacket to the lines of the bicycle.

This is vintage Cycle Chic. This is how it used to be. This is how we're making it again. We're loving it.

City Hall Square and Begging for Your Vote

As a lot Copenhagen outside the city centre is boulevards and urban sprawl, we sometimes neglect the city's squares on this blog. There is something uniquely aesthetic about a Copenhagener speeding across the City Hall Square - or any other square - in frightfully lovely style.

Vote Begging
The artist Moby has a contest where people can produce a music video for a song he's made available. If you have the time and inclination, I'd love a vote for the music video I whipped together last week. No bicycles involved, just emotions.

The video is viewable here, on Genero.tv.

You'll have to register to vote... such is internet life.

I used some old footage from a feature film I directed years ago. Exclusively grainy, close up, Super 8 material shot by the brilliant cinematographer Manuel Claro, who I went to film school with. The video features Danish actress Laura Drasbæk.

Every vote is recieved with thanks and gratitude.

My Beloved Bicycle...

This is a rather strange youtube find.. and it's Swedish. Kind of the same thing... :-) A declaration of love for a beloved bicycle.

It's kitsch, it's cult, it's fresh, it's Cycle Chic.

Here's the titles in the film in English:
- RIP bicycle.
- All of our memories...
- Your noisy clunking when I pedalled...
- Your curvacious handlebars...
- Your broken headlamp...

- We miss you so much...
- And to think your life would end like this...
- You disappeared from us so suddenly...
- To rest forever on 'soptippans' hallowed meadows...
- Rest in peace, beloved bicycle...
- In memory of my bicycle. The best bicycle that ever rolled on two wheels...
- We'll never forget you...
- You'll always be in our hearts...
- Beloved bicycle.

Monkey Warfare

Here's a classic Cycle Chic sequence from a wicked cool film Monkey Warfare that I saw tonight. A Canadian writer friend, Taras Grescoe was in town last week and our cinema talk led to him mentioning this film. Wham, bam, eBay and there you go.

Needless to say I loved the cycle chic sequence. Most the film takes place on bicycles in Toronto though.


Here's the trailer.

An Average Copenhagen Wednesday

Here's a little film I made on an average Wednesday afternoon in Copenhagen. I just stuck the camera on a bike next to the bike lanes, in two positions, for about 30 minutes each and just let it roll.

As you can see, the bicycles come in waves, just like other traffic, whenever the lights change at the intersection. This stretch of bike lane is the busiest in the western world, with between 30,000-35,000 cyclists a day.

Bicycle Kisses

Bicycle Kisses.

And speaking of our previous posts about skirtguards, how about a hairguard?

Howard's End on a Bicycle

Personally I don't advocate walking around looking like an extra in Howard's End or a Jane Austen mini-series for Channel 42 and personally I would prefer if the gentlemen had read Cycle Chic's guide - Gentlemen Prefer Bicycles - in order to choose an suitable velocipede for his daily journey, but damn it's a fine little video.

It's from the now defunct Fashion vs. Sport Exhibition at the Victora & Albert Museum.
Thanks to Matthew for the link and he's wondering what the music is. I'm guessing Vivaldi. Any guesses?

But hey, while we're in knickerbocker mode, it's a great opportunity to post this brilliant guest photo from Jacob here in Copenhagen of a Copenhagener on the Metro.

And thanks to another reader in Portugal who sent us a Cycle Chic advert from the cosmetic company Clarins that is all over the streets of Lisbon.

Ya vuelvo.

Absolutely splendid video about a bicycle in Sevilla. Beautiful, beautiful stuff.
We have a pile of guest photos from Spanish cities in the wings. Just waiting for the time to post them properly. Stay tuned.

In the meantime see more bicycles in Sevilla over at our Copenhagenize.com blog.

Cycle Chic Shanghai Ride with Elyse Sewell

A little video by a model named Elyse Sewell shot while riding around Shanghai. Cool street shots of the Chinese megacity. Music by Manu Chao.


Me in China back in 1990. I bought a cheap and cheerful Chinese bike and rode around. I couldn't be bothered to take it on the train so I sold it and bought a new one at the next stop. Back in 1990 the bicycle was still king in China. The car began to appear in great numbers in the mid-1990's and cycling declined sharply. Fortunately, Chinese cities were quick off the mark and are now trying to implement bicycle-friendly infrastructure in order to curb pollution and obesity.

French Kiss

For some strange reason this short film by François Truffaut popped into my head the other day. Les Mistons - The Brats - was one of his first directorial efforts, in 1957. It laid the groundwork for the adolescent themes in some of his later films. It's about five boys who quite fancy an 'older woman' and who subsequently get jealous when she takes a lover.

No, this hasn't turned into a film blog, I'm including it here because the first 3:30 of the film is a beautiful woman on a bicycle. Skirts a'fluttering. As they have since the bicycle was invented - so feel free to giggle when somebody tells you cycling is only a 'sport'. That's why I call it Bicycle Culture 2.0 [beta]. We've all been there before and we're going there again. Regular people on normal bikes in everyday clothes. All over the world.

”In the late 19th century, large numbers of women were already using bicycles to get to work, women office workers and shop assistants wending their way each weekday morning from the suburbs to the town. They found the bicycle a convenient form of transport for distances up to, say, ten miles”.
John Woodeforde ”The Story of the Bicycle”, 1970

And they weren't wearing lycra or riding carbon fibre contraptions and they weren't restricted to flat areas.

The Sartorialist - aka The Colville-Andersen on No Wheels - :-) posted a couple of lovely bicycle shots recently. The film above was shot in Nîmes and this photo is in Paris.


Nothing French about this shot, I just like it. Taken at the new Royal Theatre - Skuespilhuset - on the harbour in Copenhagen.

A Hub of Cyclists

A school of fish, a memory of elephants, a murder of crows - why not a Hub of Chic Copenhagen Cyclists? There. We just coined the phrase.

Stripes, tights and heels. All hail the Copenhagen Cycle Summer.

Cycling is Copenhagen is a mixture of ease, grace, beauty and a casual, relaxed attitude.

More Long John shots. The kids had so much fun that I had to try it myself. Here's Jeppe doing the hard work with me in the cargo box. And another shot of the kids.


My friends at Momemtum Magazine in Vancouver sent me this link of a recent bicycle fashion show they put on. It's great to see. Just think... a year ago, when we started this blog, there were hardly any Cycle Chic sites or blogs out there. Now the net is swimming in them. Yes, we're responsible. Yes, we're pleased. :-) Seriously, it is really great to see people taking back the bike culture.

We've had a couple of write ups on cool French bicycle blogs this past week. Vocivelo and Weelz.

Cycle Deliciousness for the Weekend

There were showers on and off yesterday but it was lovely and warm. Here's a Copenhagen supermum heading home in the afternoon. Perhaps she's picking up the little one[s] today, perhaps it's the dad.


Here's a little teaser for a longer version I'm working on.


Sometimes you ride with your umbrella, sometimes you walk. Check the Biking With Umbrellas tag for more photos.


Would she have chose those orange earrings if she rode a green bike? Unlikely. Bikes are mere transport, but they are a part of your fashion style and your personality in Copenhagen.


Ride and smoke in the casualness of Copenhagenishness.

We posted about Topshop's new bicycle advert the other day. A reader let us know about The Gap's version from a couple of years ago.

Copenhagen Cycle Chic Goes to London - Topshop Rules

Topshop is is the current leader of the Cycle Chic peloton with this brand new advert featuring pure Copenhagenesque Cycle Chic.

"This season green is the new black and bicycles are the only wheels to be rocking up in."

Indeed. Nice one, Topshop. Our only minor regret is that it isn't a Danish bicycle, but we can live with that just this once.

It's adverts like this that help generate not only pure Cycle Chic but also pure bike culture. Some people can get with the former, but everyone can get with the latter. Presenting the bicycle as a normal, easy and fun form of transport to an impressionable generation is brilliant. London cycle chic extraordinaire. In many ways, this video sums up everything we try to portray here at Copenhagen Cycle Chic and we're loving this little love-in we have with Topshop.

Here are some stills from the video for your perusal.
One thing is certain, Boris Johnson, the new Lord Mayor of London would love this video. As do we.

The video is also available on Youtube.

Ride on. And have a giggle at the poor soul Jamie Caddick who wrote this letter to the editor in the Bristol Evening Post. Be sure to write a comment.

Copenhagen Rainy Day

The rain fell all day but the bikes rolled on. This stretch of bike lane is 'medium-sized' - it gets about 10,000 bikes a day - and is located about 4 km from the heart of the city.

Here's a previous post about Biking With Umbrellas.

Two of my biking with umbrellas photographs have been immortalised for all time as postcards available at our online boutique:

Vélib - The Movie

What better way to wrap up Semaine du Vélib' here on Copenhagen Cycle Chic than with a little video tribute.

The music I used is courtesy a friend of mine, Jason McNiff. The song is called 'Bella Ciao' and it's from his latest album 'In My Time', which is available on Amazon.co.uk
He used one of my photos from New York for his album cover:

Which is lovely, of course. My son and I run around the house singing Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao Ciao Ciao! :-)

I love that it's an Englishman singing an Italian song in a Danish film about the French capital. Vive l'Europe... :-)