Recently in Fashion Category

Love the visual twists and the tight focus shooting. Really clean piece of work.

Via the fantantically dapper 00o00 blog

The last few spring/summer collections have seen bike accessories becoming increasingly common in mainstream fashion. This season Marc Jacobs is on the case with a range of caps and waterbottles available in Marc by Marc Jacobs stores.

The cap comes in what we call tweed but Americans call plaid, retails at $49 according to the site, so probably about £25

The waterbottles are priced at $5 but thanks to the unique way retail pricing works I'd be very surprised if they are less than £5. They also look suspiciously similar to a Specialized bottle I've acquired in shape and style. Definitely better looking than your average bottle.

In the last couple of years cycling has risen on the fashion agenda. It seems to fit with core fashion brand identity in terms of freedom, youth, vitality and so on as well as environmental concerns.

For men, it stretches from Paul Smith and Timothy Everest collaborating with Rapha to Richard James' exclusive singlespeed for Condor. But there's also the never-ending parade of hipster madness and bikes featuring in campaigns, such as the Lacoste one.

For women, the offering is equally diverse and big name. There's the adidas by Stella McCartney line which covers off the more sporty end of things.

If anyone owns and rides in this lovely little collection, please let me know as I've yet to see any of it out and about.

Even more elusive has been the Celine Bicyclette range which Garance Dore did some sketches for. Did this ever come to stores or was it just a concept?

London Cycle Chic stocks a fab range of accessories which are increasingly evident on bikes in London, particularly the panniers.

I recently picked up a cycling-inspired Paul Smith cap at the warehouse sale and there were stories of him planning an urban cycling line under the Tour de Ville name via R Newbold. Perhaps this cap is a sample but it seems odd as it was branded as Paul Smith. If anyone has any news on that, I'm very interested.

The big headline is Rapha for Women at last!

Obviously my first response is to make a list of the things I want.

The lightweight jersey in light blue would be nice if I'm doing the Etape this year (of course this means the moment I get one it'll be hellish weather).

It's got something of a classic Bianchi team jersey vibe going on and not being white gives it a bit more usability in my book.

I need a new gilet and I'm quite tempted by the new white one. Although I do really like the contrast stripe of the old one which feels a little bolder than the piping.

The full preview shows plenty of things that I WANT and expansion in the range that look interesting.

The city riding stuff is nice enough but doesn't turn my cranks. Perhaps I'm a bit binary about having bike mode and town mode. I like what they're doing but it doesn't grab me for riding around town. That said the pocket t-shirt may turn out to be an opportune purchase at some point.

Would love to hear what you guys think of the new stuff. Any standout items, any duffers?

On the women's stuff, I'd really love to hear what women who cycle think of it. Grit & Glimmer have got a first look with an American perspective I guess, but what about women cycling in the UK?

For me the three items are the core of any good cycling collection and the decision to go with normal shorts, not bibs is well thought out given the likely audience and type of event they'll be riding.

Opening entries are from Team Radioshack and Omega Pharma Lotto.

Hitting it hard for the first batter up to the plate (baseball metaphor? WTF?) "The Shack" are putting it into the bleachers with this number.

Where to begin?

• The arbitrary nipple high divide making it look like a boobtube
• The stuck in the 90s grey-on-grey patterning last seen looking pointless on the USPS kit
• The use of grey in cycling kit

Note: Rich Land on twitter says "Grey along with denim should never be seen anywhere near cycling kit. I bet the podium cap is a Stetson"

Exception on the grey rule is the ACBB kit for historical reasons.

Meanwhile Omega-Pharma Lotto (isn't that an american college fraternity/sorority?) seem to have tried to press home the finer details of melding the "brand imaging" of a national lottery to that of a pharmaceutical giant and driven their designer to despair.

End result is that poor Pip and the gang are going to spent the whole of next season being labelled Colgate by the rest of the peloton. It's either that or Aquafresh.

I suppose you could excuse it by saying it resembled pharmaceutical packaging, but that's like saying you prefer stubbing your toe to poking yourself in the eye.

And the worst thing about this all? There's a whole load more of them to come :((((((( *cries*

Garmin Transitions: you just know that somewhere someone is thinking to themselves "You know we really should think about how we can represent the transitions thing with a gradient fade." With light blue, orange and argyle checks.

Coco The Clown's outfit is pretty "visible", it doesn't make it cool either.

Columbia-HTC: After last year's spectacular win in the "winning races dressed up as lego" classification, can it actually get any worse? No chance that this year the Stapleton gang will be wearing something that makes them look less like cannon fodder in a badly conceived sci-fi series.

There's a reason that lots of people bought last season's Cervelo Test Team kit and it's that it actually paid some attention to being wearable. And it did it without losing brand identity.

So if you spot any new kit, let me know so I can see just who is going to be the worst dressed team in the peloton next season.

Featured in her latest collection of adidas by Stella McCartney, due to hit stores in spring/summer 2010, is cycling gear.

Notes to other cycling clothing retailers

• This is how you make cycling attractive to women. Well-cut, attractive clothing that isn't just "shrink'n'pink".
• If you are selling clothing, strong, considered photography works. It's clothing, not a physics experiment.
• adidas are coming back to the market and are serious about it.

The mitts and cap both show signs that Stella has understood the sport and the style of clothing. It's definitely Spring/Summer gear and the monochrome palette never fails.

The jersey and shorts similarly show touches that are "heritage". The mid-thigh length of the shorts harks back to the era before "mo' fabric, mo' sponsors" became the norm. And the jersey, with its understated zebra print takes the Acqua e Sapone/Domina Vacanza kit of Mario Cipollini and brings it to a level which everyday cyclists can get away with.

Now that is what I call fashion forward.

There's also triathlon gear which is, according to Grazia is "the next big thing among sporty types". Here's the quote from Stella:

"This collection continues to be a great success, and I'm very excited to introduce Triathlon and Cycling as new categories. I'm always trying to push myself and this new collection has everything you need in sports today: it is sleek, stylish and super sporty! Technically, both new sports are exciting, they are very personal yet still competitive, and they combine both a city and country experience which is very important to me."

• adidas press release for adidas by Stella McCartney, Spring/Summer 2010
• Read the Grazia review of the Stella McCartney show