Bike Fashion - Athleta Separates for the Commute

I don't like work out clothes. I don't like dressing down just because I'm going to get sweaty. But I'm no priss. I love hiking, camping, and of course riding my bike.

Even when I was a little kid, I would wear poofy dresses party dresses to play in the snow. (My mom made sure that I wore jeans underneath. This was in the eighties. Then that trend blew up in the nineties. Coincidence?)

So I'd just stopped paying attention to athletic apparel. Or worse, I considered it the source of that wretched leggings-as-pants blight. Shudder.

Then out of the blue, the kind folks at Athleta invited me to go shopping on their dime. As part of their "Street Style meets Fit Style" challenge, they wanted my take on bike fashion. To be frank, I nearly turned them down. I've completely written off exercise clothes for the past 5 years.

But you can never have too many pairs of socks, right? So I decided to check out the website.

The Athleta gear was not what I expected. I think I actually started salivating. There were plenty of cute options. Things I actually wanted to wear while biking around San Francisco.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of those racer-back shelf-bra tanks with wee little pockets. And they've got leggings for days. But there was enough good stuff that I had a hard time sticking to the budget.

A trip to the Athleta store uncovered even more possibilities. I think I wandered around with about 20 pounds of clothes until one of the lovely salespeople rescued me.

I'm really happy with the outfit I put together from my spoils. I'm wearing the Ombre Convertible Scarf over a vintage Cacharel shirt and my old Zac Posen x Target red leather jacket. My bamboo bicycle looks quite chic with the Bike Pretty Satchel, a leather handlebar bag that I designed.

I love how these Snow Flower Knee High Socks go with my favorite red and white ghillie brogues. (Sorry, if you're sick of seeing these shoes in my outfit posts. But I can't stop/won't stop.)

Last but not least, I've been shopping for a gored skirt for ages. This once classic, but labor intensive, silhouette has gone by the wayside as apparel companies simplify production. But a gored skirt drapes like no other. So I was pretty shocked to find one at Athleta. Even better, this gored skirt has a very bike pretty surprise.

Built-in shorts!

Find more inspiration on Atheleta's Fit Style Meets Street Style community page.