A question for the ladies (and all those whoo feel alike ). The idea is to help making a web article that would help other female cyclists when commuting to work, or for a "night out to the town":

How do you ride when dressed up - to work, or just going out?



How do you deal with make up in case you sweat, or it rains?

Short, or very long skirt/dress and a bicycle? How to stay chic and still ride?



What kind of bicycle suits that use best?

Thanks in advance in the name of all that will be helped.

Answers and tips can be sent here, or to my e-mail: bike.bikegremlin@gmail.com

Cycle Chic®

you mean like this one?

I was tickled to see that Pearl Izumi and a couple others offer the classic little black dress in wicking fabric. Probably the same material as my PI base layer shirt, which is a good looking, durable, form fitting fabric that nobody will ever see in public because unlike Stanley Kowalski I won't wear a wifebeater in public.

It's hard to top Audrey Hepburn on a bicycle. She always looked great.

The current fashion icon may be Velouria of Lovely Bicycle. I'm no sartorialist but, damn, that woman can wear some clothes. She can outdo Lady Edith from Downton Abbey, and Edith was no slouch while she bicycled. And it might seem creepy to point out how stunning she looks in this photo, but, dang it, I'm gonna point it out anyway.

That's all nice. What I'm interested in is to hear, from first hand experience, how to pull that off on a bicycle in the most convenient and practical way.

The Dutch are Good at English and ride for transportation , but they may not bother with this Forum,

so Machka? its summer down Under .. good time to Be riding.

A woman named Dotty has a blog called Let's Go Ride a Bike, and she does post about fashion sometimes. She mixes fashion with practicality with femininity, which I think is great.

Trying to think of someone locally, but all the women cyclists I know personally wear either full racer garb or very casual shorts and t-shirts. I can't recall seeing any woman cyclist locally who paid attention to looking fashionable while riding. Maybe once or twice a year for the annual tweed ride and similar events.

My wife doesn't do forums but does ride in a wide variety of clothes including a fair bit of Italian designers. She visits https://www.themall.it/en/outlet-italy/homepage.html every couple of years for a spree. I don't think she ever dresses differently if riding vs driving except that she will not ride in a long tight evening gown. Then again, she hates wearing long tight evening gowns so only does when it's really really required.

She has three bikes at three different places: Workcycles Gr8 (she's Swedish so it's Swedish blue & yellow) and two Workcycles Omafiets. She says the keys are; 1) the drivetrain and brakes are all internal and fully enclosed, 2) step-thru frames, 3) good fenders, and 4) fully upright. She has a couple of poncho's that she sometimes wears. If it's heavy rain and she has to dress quite nice then she'll usually drive instead of ride. Like many European women she wears very little make-up.

She does not generally ride in a way that she'll sweat. EG, slow and upright.

More: City Bikes | LocalMile

I live in a very casual town, so when I see women commuting (including my spouse), it's usually in shorts, pants, jeans, the occasional knee length skirt, etc. Even going to something like the symphony, pants are not out of place.

Interview women cyclists from the Netherlands and places where vehicular cycling is common and the climate lends itself well to dressing fashionably as well as comfortably.

I am not a woman (nor do I feel like one), but I saw a tip once for women with long skirts on a bike -- to keep them from blowing up in the wind, weight down the hem with a penny (or other coin) and a rubber band. Fold the cloth over the coin, put the rubber band around the cloth under the coin. (A picture is worth more words than however many this is)

When my partner and I go out by bike, she often wears a sort of coulott (from Terry I think), collared sport shirt (Duluth trading) and deck shoes. She either rides her touring or road bike. This type of utility riding isn't very stressful, minimal perspiration. If we get dumped on by rain or other weather event, so what - life happens !
Don't make riding difficult or needing special clothes! Running shorts, shirt and shoes are fine !

I'm a professional woman who rides to work regularly in everyday clothing. For me that usually means skirts or dresses and low heels or pressed khakis on more casual days. A few pointers:
1. No pencil skirts. If I want to wear one, I pack it in my pannier and wear a pair of running pants to get to my destination and then change when I arrive. This is a very quick change because I wear the rest of the outfit (blouse, blazer, tights, shoes, whatever) on the bike and just swap the pants for the skirt on arrival.
2. If a skirt is fuller and might blow around I clip a couple of binder clips to the hem to weigh it down. This works much better for me that the penny and rubber band trick that [MENTION=252435]RubeRad[/MENTION] mentioned.
3. Heels are fine on a bike because of where your foot naturally falls on the pedal. I'm not one to wear super high heels, so I can't speak to that, but a nice pump works fine. I can't see why a higher heel would be a problem.
4. I usually ride my loop frame when I'm in dresses and skirts, but a diamond frame works fine too. The only issue is that when you stop, the top tube pulls the skirt up. I'm often wearing tights underneath, so it doesn't really matter much to me. In the summer it's also not an issue because I wear TomboyX boxer briefs underneath, which look like bike shorts.
5. Speaking of the boxer briefs, these are awesome! They fit like unpadded bike shorts with a breathable, gusseted crotch. This may be more information than you wanted, but getting rid of the elastic around the leg holes of traditional women's briefs solves lots of saddle discomfort issues if your commute is longer than a few miles.
6. Merino wool is wonderful. It is breathable and warm. It doesn't get smelly if you sweat a bit. It layers beautifully. A typical winter outfit for me would consist of a base layer and merino wool turtle neck on top, a skirt with tights (two layers if it is very cold) on bottom, and a pair of boots. Add some gloves and a cardigan or blazer and a wind breaker, and I'm set for all but the very coldest days. If it is very cold, then the skirt goes in the pannier, and I wear a pair of black cross-country ski pants to the office and change when I arrive.
7. Hot days: There's no getting around this in the south where I live. I have found absolutely no way to ride in work clothes on hot days. In Memphis it'll get to triple digits with high humidity in the summer. On those days, I give up and ride in cycling specific clothes and all the work clothes go in the pannier. I clean up and change at the office. For me, that's typically between late May and mid-September. If I'm going to an off-site meeting where I won't have the privacy of my own office to use for cleaning up, I bring some witch hazel along. Spritzed on a damp wash cloth or paper towel, it works wonders.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the reply.
Binder clip is this?

[MENTION=351938]Giant Doofus[/MENTION] you could be a fashion consultant. Are there pictures of you in your snappy cycling garb?

Here in NYC, I see women on bikes wearing every range of styles in existence. It just shows you how smart some people are.

I can't see the picture you posted. This is what I mean by "binder clip:" https://www.amazon.com/ACCO-Binder-C.../dp/B002VD6BLG

Thanks, got it!

I'm from the Netherlands but the climate isn't that helpful. Women here bike in rain, wind, frost, hail, storm, snow and ice, sometimes all at the same time.

The upright riding position solves most elegance problems: If you can walk in it, you can bike in it, and the posture is elegant itself. A warm winter coat can be very elegant, and if you ride upright the sleeves won't creep up your arms and the front and shoulders won't fold in a way that leaves space for the wind to blow through. They don't sweat of course, that's a matter of slowing down before heating up too much, hats, gloves, scarfs and earcovers can be useful in the cold, but can also be adjusted and used to manage body temperature to prevent sweating.

With fenders, a fully covered chaincase and mudflaps there's no reason to wear different clothes, and only heavy rain could spoil the fun of looking good while riding. Most of them will use an umbrella, but for longer trips rain gear goes over the regular clothes, so they will still look good on the destination.

In spring and summer coat guards/dress guards can be useful for elegant long dresses. There are special 'skirt saddles' but they are not necessary and out of fashion since the 50's. With a step through a mini skirt doesn't reveal too much if she pays some minor attention. Some dresses will look particularly sexy while riding, because the riding makes the buttocks stand out through the dress, but I think that's hardly ever unintentional. It's also not completely unusual to see girls riding in an evening gown, accompanied by young men in white tie.

In general, most women who are elegant walking are elegant riding. They sit very straight up, back slightly hollow, shoulders straight, elbows in and chin up. Others will quit elegance while riding, and make it look like biking is hard work. With a strong head wind, no one will keep a particularly elegant posture.

This video shows normal winter cycling clothes, and spanish girls who adapted quite well.

This video is probably a good impression of how average women in the Netherlands dress 'for' cycling through the year. Cycling isn't turning them into elegant fashionista's, if it's not there cycling won't help.

[MENTION=442029]Stadjer[/MENTION] raises some good points about the bike. My loop frame bike is from Belgium, and it is equipped in a way that is hard to get in an American bike (off-the-shelf, so to speak). It has a double-footed kickstand, full chain case, IGH, fenders, drum brakes, a dynamo hub, upright geometry, and so forth. All of that stuff keeps me and the bike clean and puts me in a position that works well with dress clothing. Makes it easier to stay looking put-together.

This is Sassy, my loop frame. It was a rainy day photo, so my lovely Brooks saddle is under a rain cover.

Ms Georgina Terry has shifted Her Focus to women's cycling attire , as I understand.. Makes a Bigger % than bikes .

That’s a really neat bike, and a lovely photo.

Yup, I've followed the street photography of Ruud Albers for years. Naturally many of his photos include folks on bicycles, all wearing ordinary clothing -- whatever suits the person, rather than the bicycle.

My favorite examples are the younger folks in love, sharing a bike with the girl (usually, but not always) on the rear rack. That's how rear racks should be made! Sturdy enough to hold a girl/boy friend.

The bike is not the problem. I watched both of the videos. The women in those videos would have no problem riding American style bikes in the typical terrain, climate, and commuting distances, of Amsterdam. And they would't look out of place commuting by bike in my locale, though they might put on an extra layer during our winter. In both locations, it looks like women have done what makes the most sense, which is to work out an effective compromise in terms of both clothing and equipment.

With a couple on one bike, it's more often the girl that does the riding. I don't know if that's Dutch males contribution to women's liberation or that it's because rear racks aren't really comfortable seating. It might also have to do with who's bike it is and the habit of young men to abuse bikes. What I also like is a couple on one bike riding to the train station, with one suitcase on the front rack, and the one on the rear rack trailing the suitcase on it's little wheels. As soon as suitcases got wheels and a long handle, the wheels were put to work along the bike, riding with one hand or pulled by the passenger on the rear rack.

The trend now is that bikes and their rear racks are build more sturdy again, after build quality dropped considerably in the 90's and the early 00's, so the habit of taking a passenger is saved. But I'm afraid the Achielle from Giant Doofus is more nostalgic in looks than in sturdiness. I like them, they look very good, but Belgium has a very different cycling culture where it's style over sturdiness.

I didn't know this photographer, most of his photo's are from the city I live in, which is the city with the most bicycle use and a lot less cars than in Amsterdam. I like Thomas Schlijper a lot, he works in Amsterdam a lot, and I can be chauvinistic about it, but Amsterdam is just a bit more interesting than Groningen, there are just more cyclists, and people are bit less casual about their clothes and it has more eccentric individuals. Amsterdam has more spectacular architecture, and he captures the typical autumn and winter light at this latitude very well imo.

There's also a LBS here which photographs the cumstomers when they come to colllect their quite expensive bikes (Achielle, Schindelhauer, Azor, Van Moof), and those give a good impression of normal cycling clothes in a city that's known for casual dressing.

It probably works both ways, the way women dress influences their choice of bikes, but the fact that they have to ride in it will influence their choice of clothes. In general I guess they compromise a bit on the winter coat, but they can go berserk on the choice of hats, caps, scarfs and gloves with winter cycling as an excuse. And they will of course need an extra pair of boots and shoes for cycling.

On an American style bike, raising the handlebars would solve most problems. Most clothes are designed to fit well with an upright posture.

Last time I rode on the rear rack, girl rode the bike, but that was because I was both too drunk and shorter than her - it was the only logical option.