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Copenhagen Cycle Chic - Streetstyle and Bike Advoc: "the cycling girl as part of Danish culture"
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Showing posts with label "the cycling girl as part of Danish culture". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "the cycling girl as part of Danish culture". Show all posts

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Couple of Things

Ready For Green
This couple, complete with a kid at the front of the chap's bike, were ready for green.


It's been a while since we've had a little "It's Not Just Us" post - wherein we show that The Cycling Girl - Cykelpigen - is still an integral and iconic part of Danish culture after over a century. Here's a cover of a book called Pregnancy and Exercise and what better photo on the cover than a pregant woman on a bicycle.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Red Lights, Lego, Amsterdam, Media Blitz

No Hurry
How to Wait at a Red Light. No hurry.
Everyday People
As ever, we checked in with Marc at Amsterdamize.com to see what the Danes with the different language are doing. Love this shot.

My Mission Explained *
The original Legoland amusement park is celebrating 40 years this year. A perfect opportunity to repost this shot. Cycle Chic is everywhere in the Danish nation. Even at Legoland. The cycling girl is such an iconic figure in Danish history that she is present in town and city settings all over the park.

Danskerne cykler med stil
I'm quite taken with this photograph in the Danish Politiken newspaper of yours truly. Great stuff. The photographer Tobias is quite brilliant. It's been a hectic fortnight for Copenhagen Cycle Chic and copenhagenize.com.

For some strange reason that now escapes me, I ended up on a page on the Cannondale website - a bike brand, apparently. No wonder we don't see many around here. It's a FAQ about choosing the right bike, including such pearls of useless text as:

"Because we are obsessed as you are about your bike's weight, we implore you to go visit your local Cannondale Dealer to help you determine the specific weight of any bike you may be considering. We know you'll be impressed."

"Individual fitting of a bicycle is a step-wise process and a series of compromises. Professional guidance DOES simplify the process and we encourage you to be fit properly by a trained bicycle professional."

"Your body type is the only factor that does not change. Your inseam to height ratio, the length of your arms, the size of hands, the size of your torso etc. all factor into determining the correct fit of a bike."

"As a result, Cannondale highly suggests that you not rely on fit charts, but instead seek professional guidance and recommendations from an experienced bicycle shop."

"Buying a Cannondale is an investment in your recreational pleasure. Fitting a Cannondale should be like fitting a wedding gown, or an expensive suit. It should fit the individual as well as either of these other fine items."


If I'm going to use a bike for competitive racing, this might make sense. But otherwise it's merely an excerise in Terminology Folly as we posted about previously. If you think about it, there are either hundreds of millions of really stupid people who dare to buy their bikes without 'fittings' involving 'measuring hands' or there is a handful of really silly bike websites. My money is on the latter. [Ironically the word 'latter' means laughter in Danish.]

Friday, August 8, 2008

Film and Fashion


Firstly, the film. A little cinematic thingy I whipped up. The music is from 1935, a song called 'Cykelsangen' - The Cycle Song - by Poul Henningsen, written for his film 'Danmark' from the same year. It was a documentary about the state of the nation and he wrapped it up with a long sequence of lovely Copenhageners cycling, with this song as the backdrop. "Cycling girls... lovely shoes on pedals" are among the lyrics. Some things never change and thank goodness for that. We've blogged a few times before about the iconic figure of the Cycling Girl as an integral part of Danish history. Denmark has a mammoth back catalogue of songs and poems celebrating our cycling women. This song is one of the classics.

THE FASHION
Copenhagen Vision
This week sees Copenhagen showing her colours as a fashion capital. Fashion is a major industry here, as one might expect from a nation known for its design heritage and the Copenhagen Vision fashion fair is in full swing. What will we be wearing next spring/summer and will Paris Hilton show up are the two main questions. [the latter is in town plugging her new bags.]
Copenhagen Vision
Wifealiciousness blogged about the fashion week over at Modler Style - in Danish - if you're interested in a designer's POV.

At the major venues it's a constant parade of frightfully well-dressed participants heading for catwalk shows or events or free alcohol. I went past the other day and noticed that most of the foreign guests were showing up in a convoy of taxis from either the airport or their designer hotel. It was a polygot extravanganza what with all the langauges wafting past.
Copenhagen Vision
But typically, most of the locals were rolling up on their bikes, as these pictures attest. Because it's easy and quick, because it's just what you do in Copenhagen but maybe because the Italians and Americans hogged all the taxis. Nevertheless, we're showing how to do it and leading the way.
Copenhagen Vision

Copenhagen Vision

Copenhagen Vision

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

"A Cycling Girl Becomes Our Dream Today"

Preparing to Merge into Bike Traffic
Our co-blogger Marie is currently in Malaysia working on a Danish reality show for a couple of months but she'll be blogging as best she can while there. Marie's granddad was known for his songwriting and we thought it appropriate to translate one of his cycling songs about springtime. His name was Sigfred Pedersen and he wrote the following song in 1936.

We have several posts about the iconic stature of the Cycling Girl [cykelpigen] in Danish history and this song is a fine example of the poetry surrounding the topic. I translated it directly, so it doesn't rhyme in English. Nevertheless, the song remains true to this day and still fits Copenhagen's bike culture to a tee.

Cyclist Song by Sigfred Pedersen, 1936

Denmark's young girls are all cycling now / Through springime's gentle, floral kingdom / To the beat of nickel bike bells / They head in flocks towards fairy tale adventures / With the sun in their eye, squinting over the handlebars / All the cold of winter is suddenly forgotten.

Yes, soon old houses can ignite in flame / Us old boys feel our blood rush [...]
We must give up! It's useless to lie: / That which flutters and which flies, entices us / A cycling girl becomes our dream today.

Fly out in flocks, you lovely cyclists / That which smiles and which tempts, entices us [...] / Fly out in flocks, fly out with your partner, / The youth must have freedom every day / But remember that bike lights must be turned on at 9!

All winter you long for the sun / Now springtime embraces the dresses / As the bike bell chimes from the polished handlebars / Every girl's heart is a promise given / One to be embraced completely by life / Springtime's fairytale begins today

The small cyclistas become cyclones / Millions of them on their small machines / Make traffic dangerous for every sad cyclist / But I have an indestructable frame and I can swing / If your tyre is flat we can trade tubes / As long as it will be you and I at the end of the day.

My own girl cycles through the spring / small auriculas flutter from the forks / A knee slides in and out of the hem of her dress / It all smells sweetly of love and nickel and springtime / from the newly varnished cycle / that carries the city's blonde girl on her way.

Ray of Light

[NB:] The reference to 'auriculas flutter from the forks' is seen to this day. Women decorate their baskets and frames with flowers, more often plastic than real, but it is an old tradition in Denmark from the early days of cycling:
personal style

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Copenhagen Bridges Now and Then

Left right
"In the stream of cycles over Knippels Bridge we see Gudrun again, pedaling steadily. As though her and the machine are one. She is Copenhagen and Copenhagen is her."
Johannes V. Jensen, from the novel Gudrun, 1936.

The photo above is Knippels Bridge these days. Still a steady stream of cyclists each day. Below is a great video showing bike rush hour in Copenhagen on said bridge.

Here's the same bridge in 1935:

In the aforementioned novel 'Gudrun' there's a great passage comparing Copenhageners to schools of fish:
"If one is bumped by a car, the whole school is bumped. It's a nerve one has in the elbow, a flock function, which Copenhageners have learned so well that it is second nature".

Here's one of the other bridges over the harbour:
Bridge Glance

And this is the newest car-free bridge over the harbour, one side for pedestrians [not visible, it's on the other side of the white barrier] and the other for bikes.
Shadow Check

A Number of Things

Heading West

I don't really look at the stats of this blog too much. Once in awhile it's interesting. For ages there was only 1 visitor from North Dakota. Now, out of the blue, there are four. I'm fascinated. It's a massive statistical increase. Copenhagen Cycle Chic is BIG in North Dakota. North Dakotans! Come forward! Let us salute you!


After a splendid exchange of comments regarding chainguards, skirtguards and fenders, I took a photo of all the fenders in the bike shed. There are four bike sheds outside our flat, but I only took photos in the one. I was well chuffed that the Great Joe Breeze popped by for a comment. (okay, I had to google him, but my American mates filled me in... what a career he has had!)
Fender Frenzy

La Danoise
"Bicycle posters flatter the liberated woman and her beauty and independence compliment the product's quality. In addition, the artwork shows how easy it is for the feminine sex to handle the bicycle, just as the women pictured are a testament to the femininity that isn't lost, but rather is increased, by cycling.

"The era's modern man, in sporty outfits, also features on bike posters but he is often given the role of the unlucky cyclist with a broken chain or a puncture. More often than not he rides behind the woman, who either overtakes him or is in front of the peloton.

"At the moment the concept of the Danish Cycle Girl was created, the bike poster visualised her more convincingly than any other medium."
Lars Dybdahl in "Den danske plakat" - The Danish Poster.

And remember, bloggers and blogettes! Nobody like a whiner. :-)

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Winter's Last Gasp

First a fierce sleetstorm two days ago and then a sudden snowstorm. All after a tame, dull winter. The point is that people just get on with it, on their bikes, muscling their way through the weather. It always impresses me. Click on the photos to see them larger on Flickr.
Sleetstorm
Sleetstorm Family with Teddy Bear Sleetstorm Musician Sleetstorm Kronan Inside and Out
Snowstorm
While we're on snowstorms, I find it fascinating that this photo:
Snowstorm Brochure
features on the cover of a brochure for Adult Education courses [Italian for Beginners, Learn to Knit, etc]. My friend Marie included this observation in her thesis about Danish bike culture.

There are few countries where a photo of a female cyclist struggling through a snowstorm would be used to sell a product.

Classic, Classy, Copenhagener

"One must never ride into the back wheel of a loved and charming woman, unless one is convinced in advance that one's love for said woman will always be, and must be, unhappy."
Johannes Wulff in "Paa cykle" [On the Bike], from 1930


Why am I quoting literature?

Another Copenhagen supermum in her natural environment. Elegant boots with sharp heels, leather trousers, fur scarf, this winter's popular red gloves, oversized sunglasses and... a chunky old Bobike seat for her kid[s] resting on an anonymous Raleigh.

Oh, and isn't it time for another wallpaper?


Copenhagen Cycle Chic online boutique is now open

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Like-minded Individuals

Copenhagen - Gay Spot of Europe
I've made the acquaintence of many like-minded individuals through this blog and now I'm met one close to home. I was contacted by Marie, a fellow Copenhagener, and we met to discuss our passion for Copenhagen bike culture.

She wrote her thesis from the University of Copenhagen last year called "The Modest Democracy of Daily Life - An analysis of the bicycle as a symbol of Danishness".

For those who understand Danish, there is an interview with her on Danish Broadcasting's website. Click on the name Marie Kåstrup to hear it.

The thesis makes for fascinating reading. The short of the long is that we are now collaborating on a book about Danish bike culture and it's all very exciting. Not to mention odd that it hasn't been done before. Working title: 'Cykelkultur' - I don't need to translate that, do I? :-)

But despite the lack of books on the subject, she confirmed what I had long suspected: that Denmark has more songs, literature and poems dedicated to the bicycle than any other country. Not even our happy, singing, poetic Dutch friends to the south can compete.

And indeed, the concept of "cykelpigen" - or "the cycling girl" was well established from early on and it remains an iconic symbol of Danishness even today [this blog, for example]. "A unique front figure for the democratic bike culture", as Marie writes in her thesis. "She is, all at once, a modest, charming and everyday representation of Danishness."

Poets and writers and songwriters have sung the praises of the Copenhagen cycling and cyclists for over 120 years.

In his famous documentary from 1935 simply called 'Danmark', Poul Henningsen filmed cycles in the city, including these 'young cycle ladies' and wrote the final song in the film - "Cykelsang" wherein he mentions 'Sweet shoes on pedals [...] Cycle girls... lovely girls!'. Here's a still from the film of a cyclist in a summer dress pedalling through the landscape:


And here is a hastily made Short visual history of Danish cycling:



More to follow, along with the usual content... don't worry.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

The Cycle Girl Statue

P1140299 (by jesign24)
The Weather Girls - Vejrpigerne - have been somewhat of a landmark in Copenhagen since the 1930's. They sit atop the Richshuset building on the City Hall Square. Stretching below them is a long, neon thermometer - also from the 1930's - which still works today.

The Cycle Girl, however, is no longer active. There are two versions of the girl; one [as seen above] of a girl in a skirt and one with a girl in a jacket and holding an umbrella with her dog next to her [the brolley is just visible on the right].

The girls are on a rotating disc and provided a weather forecast for Copenhageners. If fair weather was expected, the girl on the bike would rotate out to the edge. Rain? The other girl would rotate out.

Hardly scientific and really rather vague, but an excellent example of how girls on bikes are an integral part of the Danish mentality.
P1140301 (by jesign24)
Thanks to jesign24 on Flickr for the lovely photos.

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