Portraits of cyclists: Sarah: “I wanted to support a Danish brand”

“I'm from Copenhagen. I cycle every day mostly in the city-center.

I ride a Velorbis bicycle, that I purchased since I wanted to support a Danish brand and I really wanted this wooden box.”

More pictures of Copenhagen on Byliv in CPH.

Adjusting Hugh & Saturation

I rode out to the airport in Copenhagen (which is no big deal) this morning, to meet this fine British chap, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. He was arriving from the UK to film a tv show about Copenhagen and Denmark and we thought it rather appropriate if we adjusted him immediately to Copenhagen life and saturated him in our bicycle-frienly city from the word go.

We chucked his bag in my Bullitt and he hopped onto a Velorbis and we cycled into the city centre - past Christiansborg (which the whole planet seems to know as Borgen, thanks to the television series), where I took this shot. I filled him in on all the aspects of a mainstream bicycle culture (which really is a non-culture), planning liveable cities with the bicycle as the most powerful tool for change, as well as the finer points of Cycle Chic.


We rolled casually through the city, hardly breaking sweat as we pedalled and chatted and I delivered him to his hotel.

It was almost orchestrated when we were leaving the airport and we saw this Copenhagen family arriving with their bags on bicycles, ready to head off on a summer holiday.

For Hugh, it was the perfect arrival in this fine city. Easing him into the city from the airport, down the cycle tracks that gradually grew more and more busy with bicycles as we got closer to the medival city centre. And all on a gloriously sunny day.

Welcome to Copenhagen, Hugh!

Copenhagen Blonde - New Guest Writer

New stuff coming up here on Cycle Chic. Our good friend Copenhagen Blonde is going to be guest blogging each Friday with shots of Copenhageners and recommendations for what to do and see in Copenhagen the coming weekend.


Always seen cycling about Copenhagen on her Velorbis, The Blonde blogs all about Copenhagen life over at her Copenhagen Blonde blog. Be sure to check it out and follow her articles each Friday right here at Cycle Chic. We're happy to have her on board.


And keep an eye out for her bicycle on the streets of Copenhagen.

Copenhagen Fashion Week - on the Street

Chic'sters in motion heading to the next show.  Most on bicycles.  The easiest way to get from event to event.

Literally, fashion week on the street, as the streets of the Grønnegade neighbourhood in central Copenhagen were closed.  Roads covered with red carpet.  Cars replaced with models.  

This wonderworld had to be created somehow.  We found out it was partly via bike, like the Velorbis Long John cargo bike above helping to organise and advertise the show. 

Easy to Spot

If you happen to be looking for Mr Cycle Chic Himself in Copenhagen between 07:45 and 08:00 and again somewhere between 15:00-16:00 on weekdays, I'm the one with... um... the pink lunch box on my back rack.


Oh, and these lovely creatures up front.

Nature Pimped My Bike

I went off to Halifax and Montreal and when I got home to Copenhagen, nature had pimped my bicycle for me! How thoughtful!

Mikael Chic

In honor of the man who brought us Cycle Chic, here is a little Mikael Chic.

Happy Birthday Mikael and thank you for showing us the beauty of the bicycle!

Some Red

Red heels make a fine exclamation mark on both the outfit and the urban landscape.

Then again, a red bicycle takes it one step further.

Vesterbro Nights

My friend Sille (the owner of the Invisible Cycle Chic bicycle) and I were playing around in the Vesterbro neighbourhood one evening. We may or may not have consumed red wine.

We may or may not have had the camera on the correct settings for shooting at night. We did have bicycles, though. That's my Velorbis - posing like it knows there's a (blurry) camera around.

Cycle Chic & Muuse.com - Match Made in Heaven

Readers may recall the post about Cycle Chic's film shoot with Muuse.com from a while back. We're pleased to finally be able to present the film we made in collaboration with Muuse.

We shot it out at Amager Beach in Copenhagen a couple of months ago. It was a chilly day but we are pleased that the film has a hint of summer to it.

For us at Cycle Chic, Muuse is the perfect playmate. Not only are we good friends socially and professionally, the whole concept of Muuse is appealing to us. The fashion industry is hopelessly unsustainable. Big companies produce piles of clothes and, if they don't get sold, they are shredded and thrown away. Muuse features top young designers and customers can order the outfits on their website. When a certain number of orders are reached, Muuse puts the outfit into production. Ethically and locally.

The designs chosen for the film are all harmonious with the bicycle and go hand in hand with the inherent aestheticism of the two-wheeled machine. Bike geeks will bang on about goofy "cycling clothes" with reflective bits and pieces or "urban cycling trousers" (we've been riding bicycles for a century without needing them) but we'll just send you to this blogpost for our point of view about this. And while we're at it, this little film explains why we prefer to be citizens who use bicycles to get around instead of "cyclists".

Anyway... these outfits are haute couture, sure, but we love them for their flowing fabric movement. Bicycles, by their very nature, create a movement of air around us. Designs that accentuate and compliment this natural flow of air add to the appealing nature of seeing Citizen Cyclists on bicycles. Not surprisingly, we filmed the bicycle shots from a Nihola cargo bike. And thanks to Velorbis for loaning us the bicycles used by our model.

The designs used in the film are by Linda Vasel, Nathalie Fordeyn and Laura Baruël - three designers collaborating with Muuse.com.



Director: Mikael Colville-Andersen / Cycle Chic
Cinematographer: Theis Mortensen
Model: Maria Bloch-Jørgensen
Styling: Muuse.com

Muuse.com

Eyes in the Back of My Head

When a bicycle is your primary form of transport, strange things appear on it. Like these LEGO storage heads I found on sale at a supermarket here in Copenhagen and rode home with on my Velorbis. I like having eyes in the back of my head.

But it's also important to keep your eyes front. :-)

Cycle Chic Meets Muuse.com

Cycle Chic has teamed up with our friends at Muuse.com to make a film combining Muuse's brilliant fashion with Cycle Chic's eye for bicycles. We headed out to one of the many beaches around Copenhagen last Friday to shoot and here are some of the still photos from the day. Thanks to Velorbis for the bicycles, too.

It was a brilliant day. A little chilly, if you ask us, but our model Maria is a viking and she put on a brave face. We wrapped her in fur and blankets between every take and took good care of her. Most of the shooting featured many of Muuse's creations from their talented designers but we always included some classic Cycle Chic bicycle ridin'. Of course we did. We couldn't live without it.


Muuse.com has also written about the behind the scenes action from the film shoot over at their blog.








It goes without saying that when we did the mobile shots, we used a cargo bike from Nihola. Mikael rode the trike and Theis, the cinematographer, sat in the box.

Right then... we'd better get started editing the film. Keep your eyes on this space. It's coming soon. Well... kind of soon. Soonish.

Cycle Chic Photo Shoot for Velorbis

It's Copenhagen Fashion Week this week and what better reason than to write about bicycles and fashion.

It's no surprise that we like photography and we like bicycles here at Cycle Chic. Often we get to combine the two in a little more detail than normal in the form of photo shoots. Danish bicycle brand Velorbis needed some new imagery for the new catalogue and we said 'oh, yes' when they called. We shot the catalogue over two days here in Copenhagen and had a fabulous time.

Here are some of the photos from the shoot that we fancy. We shot a number of Velorbis bicycles as well as a bunch of their cool, new accessories like gorgeous leather bags for urban living.







And here are some behind the camera photos of Mikael at work. :-)









There were, of course, a number of things we wove into the concept for the photo shoot. If there is any bicycle brand out there that understands how to sell their products positively, it is Velorbis. So right off the bat, we had a whole marketing world in common.

We wished to present cycling and bicycles like they always used to be presented, from the very beginning of bicycle culture in the late 1880's. Elegance, practicality, effortlessness. We were inspired by the many examples of bicycle posters from the late 1800's/early 1900's. Not directly, but merely in the style of the messaging.





We also developed a concept for the photo shoot that is quite rare in bicycle advertising. We found hardly any examples of bicycle ads where the model looked right into the camera, at the viewer. So we integrated this into the shoot, as you can see in a lot of these photos.


Here is a little slideshow from the photo shoot with Velorbis - both behind the camera and the shots we took:


Now we're looking forward to a shoot - stills and a film - for our good friends at MUUSE.COM next month.

Copenhagenize Consulting, who run Cycle Chic, works with consultancy and communications regarding urban cycling but fashion and photo/film jobs are the jam on our bread and butter sandwiches. See the commercial for Biomega bicycles, for example, here.