Sam Haskins Blog

The humble bicycle is once again having its day – pushing back against the motor car in urban environments. Not only environmentally friendly and cost efficient cycling is also becoming stylish and cool in all sorts of ways. At last week’s opening of the Bill Cunningham exhibition at Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Avenue in NY, a new phenomenon appeared in the evolution of cool partying – the bicyle valet. The super stylish guests were free wheeling up to the red carpet hopping off their bikes and walking straight in to the show – the valets just handed them a ticket and the bikes were kept right next to the entrance – instantly ready when the guests were ready to leave.

Here’s a snapshot of one of the bike valets, taken by my son on his phone.

Its instantly obvious, in very bicycle centric cities, like Amsterdam and Munich, that cycling is treated by many as a fashion show cat-walk on two wheels.

Nothing new about that. Here’s the famous Ramón Casas painting depicting himself and Pere Romeu on a tandem bicycle. The picture was a centerpiece in the “Four Cats” restaurant where the twenty year old Picasso mingled with the Barcelona art establishment.

To the right is a shot I did for a car rental company calendar in the 70s – each ‘month’ depicted a different mode of transport.

Here’s another image from the same calendar.

Below is an impromtu cylcle image, a snatched snap, from a calendar assignment in Normandy.

The following cycle images are from Cowboy Kate.

Here are the individual elements of the spread.

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