FASHION As a veteran biker of New York's chaotic streets, I'm absolutely thrilled to hear about all the recent attention given to improving the lot of the ignored, maligned, and endangered folks who choose to get around town on a bicycle. Riding down 2nd Avenue in Manhattan, on what was painted as a bike lane but functioned as a taxi parking lane, | felt | was in a video game, dodging and weaving attacks from all sides- many of them disturbingly aggressive. | wondered if bus drivers were actually trying to kill me for taking up my tiny sliver of the road with what | guess seemed to be an annoying form of transportation. And in answer to my musings, | would frequently get this oft- repeated response from someone with a four-wheeled vehicle and an open widow- "Get the f—- off the road! This is the fin’ city, for crying out loud! ‘Oh, sweet New York. But when | hear about all these now bike lanes being built, some even separated from traffic (bless your hear, transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, and keep the bike lanes coming!), well, | feel a pang of desire to be back in my town. Except that I'm in Paris, and separated bike paths are pretty common, and there's an amazing city program which has thousands of bikes on the street for the public to use for a mere pittance of a rental subscription. More fundamentally, Parisians have long regarded bicycles as a reasonable, affordable, and enjoyable form of transportation, whereas in New York, biking has mostly been a fringe activity, belonging to extremists like fixed-gear Junkies and bike-or-die messenger types, with just a smattering of folks who ride for the practicality and pleasure of such personal and simple transportation. |'ve noticed that the increased attention to biking in New York has pro- duced a lot of style quandaries, or seemingly it has, because | see many answers offered to this supposed problem. Just recently, the chairman of North America's branch of LVMH in New York, himself a daily bike commuter, held a contest among F.I.T.’s students for the best bike wear, to be produced by Donna Karan. The winner created an ad- mirably smart collection of ponchos and giant bags and special pants, which are inventive and probably very handy, but not actually necessary for biking. Traveling Broadway on two wheels is a dangerous challenge, but it’s not like you're riding up the side of the Rocky Mountains. Here is where | think New Yorkers could learn a thing or two from ‘some old hands in the city biking game. Parisians are a decidedly chic lot. They don't admit the existence of sweatpants or tracksuits, or active wear in general, preferring rather to find comfort in always looking their best. Certainly, riding a bike to wherever they are going does not hamper this philosophy since, as | stated earlier, it's as natural and part of life as any other form of, transportation. In fact, it was after a trip to Paris many years ago that | first ventured to wear high heels while riding my bike and | discovered the blessed truth- is easy, Easier than walking in heels, and really, hardly any trickier than biking in flat shoes. Soon | tried other Parisian ways like wearing short skirts, and except for a few surprise shows for pedestrians thanks to some sudden gusts of wind, every thing was fine. | could bike in anything, just like the Parisians. This was, perhaps, my first step towards life in Europe. This is all ust to advise my dear New Yorkers to embrace the new bike lanes and fear not wearing a suit or a short dress or completely non-sporting wear on your bicycle. I's just the handiest, greenest, hippest way to get around now, and the only necessary gear is two wheels. Take it from the Parisians. by Laura Rysman