My Favorite Summer Cycling Outfit 09/10/09

The Outfit

Dress: Vera Wang
Shoes: Chloe

As summer comes to an end, I’ve decided on my favorite warm weather cycling outfit. I’ve worn it many times, including a 20 mile ride on Labor Day and a fast ride downtown today for a networking event. The dress is super light and airy with great ventilation. The pleated skirt drapes prettily and covers everything I want covered. Wrinkles never form. Sweat spots never show. Best of all, there is a shorter layer of fabric just below the waistline that flies up in the breeze and flaps behind me like a cape. Very fun :) The shoes are super comfortable gold leather flats. When choosing between this outfit or shorts and a tank top, this outfit wins hands down.

In a couple of months I will look back on this post in mourning, as I begin my winter ritual of layering wool leggings, pants, two pairs of wool socks, wool undershirt, wool sweater, wind breaker, two pairs of gloves, ear muffs, scarf, Russian winter boots, and safety glasses.

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  • http://lovelybike.blogspot.com Lovely Bicycle!

    My outfit today on a trip 1 hour North of Boston: yoga pants, long-sleeve dress, thick Irish wool sweater, thick socks, black walking shoes. Summer here seems to be a thing of the past!

    I agree about fluttery dresses being great for the heat, and prints great at hiding sweat stains. Hope your warmish days last longer than ours.

  • lorenza

    both shoes and dress are lovely :) Vera Wang clothes are always so feminine and romantic… ahhh one day ;) Sky Ride is an event that started in Manchester and will be happening all over the UK where a chosen Sunday (ours was in august, London is in September) a lot of city centre roads which are usually congested with traffic will be closed to cars and opened up completely to cyclists, i.e. no just cycle lanes!! In Manchester it was a 11.5km route between the city centre and our Sport City (to the East, where a lot of our sports venue are located), and it was great as I have never cycled right in the centre of the city because traffic can be quite scary!

    The best thing of all is that people of all ages took part, from children on their bikes with stabilizers to grandparents etc, mostly wearing everyday clothes, and then few lycra fast speed ‘professionals’ ;) The model and pretty dresses and heels are a bit of PR marketing as usual ;) But at the Manchester one I saw a lot of ladies riding in style ;)

    It’s just the media over here only tend to cover news from London, forgetting that that UK is made of many other different cities ;) oh well… c’est la vie :D

  • http://www.slowbikemiami.com Daniel M. Perez (Slow Bike Miami)

    In a couple of months Miamians will also begin the layering process, going from the barely-concealing ensembles of summer to the slightly-concealing outfits of “autumn.”

    Cycle chic in Miami is a completely different beast. :-)

  • Stacy

    How about a posting on winter clothing for bike commuting? Unless you’ve already done one and I missed it, of course….

  • http://leperpop.blogspot.com Sid

    Your photos have inspired me to ditch Lincoln Avenue once in a while this summer to enjoy the lakefront path. Takes a little longer but definitely worth it when I have the time. Just sorry I’m not doing much to help the scenery with my ugly black Trek and baggy shorts.

  • http://letsgorideabike.wordpress.com Trisha

    Looks like that was a good buy! Wearing it into winter would be worth a try—I can see it looking very cute layered over wool and tights.

  • chibikegal

    looking forward to the winter style updates…mine revolves around variations on down-stuffed winterwear …sigh

  • Man

    Aww Summer and the nice outfits….. We here at least have an Indian Summer still going on for another few weeks (hopefully). Your dress looks like the wind would have a fun day with it being light and airy?

    Which reminds me I saw a girl wearing a similar airy dress the other day flapping high in front due to the wind on her bike. Interestingly she had a slip on underneath (which is not a common accessory nowadays I guess).

  • Elizabeth

    Thank you for picking a delightful angle on biking close to my own heart: riding with normal, even going-out, clothes! So tired of all this lycra everyone insist on wearing for a breezy trip around on of our lakes (I live in Madison, WI). It’s like riding with a bunch of super heros on the trail…