Farah: Tribal winters North winds and great plains, vistas providing the variety of life. The energy of a continent refocussed for winter riding. Farah's duo of designs - Bamako and Tribe - are designed to stand out while standing up to the rigours of colder weather roads. TRIBEA contemporary camo base meets updated African wax iconography. Fleece lined performance fabric on the inside, hyper-style on the outside.BAMAKOBal de Bamako - an anthem for some. Brave blues and part inspiration for the entire Boubou collection.BOUBOU GOT BACKOut ahead each Boubou jersey reflects the inspirations behind it. Front to back and back to front.ONE THING AND ANOTHERHedonistic design faced with multiple modern touches. Reflective stripes strike a pose.LIGHTEN UPSplash Boubou with colour to refresh a winter wardrobe. Add Adèle bibs and Lola leg warmers to complete the style.

Madame Irma In French 'Madame Irma' is a fortune teller. All crystals, queens of club and confidences. For future adventures that are already foretold, the Café du Cycliste Irma helps you ride into the distance.POCKET CHANGE(S) Irma's innovative rear hold-all drop pocket adds extra storage capabilities outside the traditional three.PACK IT IN Easily store your rain cape, reflective gilet or extra fuel and go long.AX IS FOR AUDAX Our Audax Collection is detailed for distance. Inspired by, and built for, those who go long.

Lookbook AW17 Alpes Colour for cooler weather riding. AW17 mixes technical and technicolour.

Lookbook AW17 Canada We crossed the pond and headed north. Autumn Winter among the redwoods.

Shorts stories: Celine Why gravel ? Don't get me wrong. I enjoy the road for the smooth tarmac, the comfort of being that bit closer to civilisation and the practicality of knowing roughly what time I'll be home. But sometimes, I feel a little restricted.So I go back a step, to my other life. To simply looking at a mountain, seeing a trail and setting off to explore. The Alpine Line is the fortified sector in the Alpes-Maritimes where nearly every peak beside the Franco-Italian border has a fort. The military built roads to access them.The routes strategiques: dirt tracks which could not exceed an eight per cent gradient otherwise the horse carriages or trucks carrying the ammunitions and supplies couldn't get to the top. Unpaved roads where hardly anybody visits. The perfect playing ground for gravel bikes. I call a loop of gravel secteurs sandwiched between slices of road my Tour des Cols. Orme, Ablé, Farguet, Ségra, Banquettes, Castillon and St Jean.You may not be far from the road but on the loose stuff, in between the trees it feels wild and remote. Switchbacks in the Gorge du Piaon, the start of the Beccas track, 15kms of gravel leading to the Col de Cabanettes, the transition from Col de L’Orme and through Col de Braus.Another rolling gravel section that eventually gives up the first view of the Mediterranean, the fort at Saint Agnes towering above the azur water.And turning for home, endorphins still pumping, I ponder on mountain versus road and wonder whether maybe I have found the best of both worlds. Mary uses the flexibility of the bib-less Celine padded shorts on both double track and single track.

Lookbook AW17 Femme Scotland, Canada and closer to home.

Shorts stories: Odile Shorts, gloves and shoes. The cycling holy trinity, the three contact points, the three most important pieces of kit. Especially if, or maybe when, you choose, to ride across America. West to east, over four thousand miles, from the Pacific rollers to the Atlantic swell.A journey that guarantees the worst of times. Going hungry, sleeping rough, feeling so cold you can't change an inner tube, the seemingly constant presence of self doubt. But equally the best of them too. Extraordinary landscapes to feast the eyes, sleeping under the stars, food that never ever tasted so good. And the kindness of the human spirit.The weary fire fighter who somehow tracks you down at night to direct you to his station. Your fellow racers willing to share their burger, when it's all they have. The generous trail angel appearing out of the ghostly mist on a soggy evening with the promise of a dry bed.So many experiences lived, so many lessons learnt. Riding in comfort is essential. Small mistakes are magnified ten fold over such large distances. The best bib shorts are crucial, choose unwisely and your race is already over. Memories are powerful things, they really can last forever.Rebecca rode 4, 267 miles in the Transamerica bike race. Our Odile classic bib shorts went with her for each and every one of them.

Lookbook AW17 Écosse Turn down the palette, fire up the moods. Scotland in Autumn Winter.

Lookbook SS17 Mr Porter Capsule Collection Salt flats and flamingos. Black and white images on a blue sky background.

Shorts stories: Blandine Each pair of cycling shorts I possess has its own story to tell. Each is marked by time and by the obstacles overcome by bike, on roads across Europe and Africa to South America and the Middle East. They bear silent witness to the challenges faced together and have been observers of the life I’ve led for 7 years. Each journey ridden comes with its own set of vivid and unforgettable memories, each one leaves its mark on your mind and on your soul. Your body bears the scars of the effort you put in, of the impact of harsh climates on delicate skin and the rare but unavoidable falls on the hazard-strewn roads of the adventure cyclist. Your kit too.The harder the expedition, the more visible the scars on a cyclist and his kit. Each snag and unsightly hole reminds me afresh of how challenging that journey was, the folly of the idea and the glory of any accomplishments achieved Conditions are spartan and I pack extremely light. My shorts become my most precious possession.Like the fisherman with the threadbare pullover he can’t bear to part with, I keep each piece of kit from my long-distance journeys, aware of the bond which links us. Throwing them away at the end of the journey would be an insult. Instead, as my partner in adventure they enjoy a well-earned rest on the shelf along with the trophies from my past life.Treat your shorts well and they will do the same in return. Our lightweight bib shorts Blandine have travelled the world and survived to tell the tale.

Silk material gains "He won the Stage 6 time trial … with silk tyres and jersey to match… and a 56-tooth chainwheel”. Silk tyres and a jersey to match? Who wouldn’t aspire to such class on a bike. If ever there was a cool mise-en-scene of Eddy Merckx’s prowess that quote, reported by Cycling Weekly during the 1975 Tour, might be it.But the Cannibal was not the pioneer of silk as the fabric of choice for aerodynamic gains. It was used over 20 years before, especially on the track. Frenchman Roger Rivière was a big proponent of the advantages of silk. He won the world professional pursuit title in 1957 his first year as a professional. The next year, he repeated his win in Paris wearing a silk jersey and shorts combination, together with an early derivative of the aero helmet covers we see today. And in the same season he took on the hour record, pushing it up to 47km/h on the Vigorelli track in Milan - an effort that remained unbeaten for nine years. As Pierry Chany wrote, he nearly abandoned that attempt due to the wind blowing across the velodrome, “his entourage measured the strength of the wind: matches blew out and the smoke from cigarettes stretched out horizontally.” But eventually Roger appeared ready to go. “He was wearing a helmet covered in nylon, varnished shoes and a world champion's jersey made of silk.” Meticulous preparation wasn’t evented by the modern era. Picture above: Rivière being cheered on by Coppi, also a proponent of the silk skin suit.The advantages seen, or at least perceived, on the track were eventually transferred on to the road, usually for use in time trials For Ferdy Kübler, the use of a silk jersey in the individual time trial during the 1950 Tour de France both gained and lost him time. Kübler was known as an impetuous rider, who sometimes rode with his brawn rather than his brain. That year he had started the Tour steadily, placing inside the top ten in the first two stages and sitting ninth overall going into the stage six race against the clock. As a time trial specialist, he won the stage taking at nearly three minutes on his closest rival and moving into third place on the general classification. But his gains were cut as incredibly he decided to stop, mid-stage and exchange his traditional wool jersey for a silk one. The commissaires were not impressed and he was later penalised 25 seconds for discarding the regulation jersey.However the choice between wool and silk did not have to be black and white. In 1960 and Spanish racer, Guillermo Timoner seems to have pre-empted our Louise jersey by more than 60 years. He choose to mix wool and silk for UCI Motor-Paced World Championships as “The wool picked up some of the turbulent air coming off the back of the motorbike, so would pull me along because I sat quite upright, and the silk smoothed the airflow over my back.” Guillermo plied his trade on the track and it was on the boards where the silk jersey is perhaps most well known. Riders pinned their jerseys until they were skin tight. It became part of the culture that lives on to this day in Six Day racing. Added to the aerodynamic benefit was the fact that silk dried better than wool in the heat and humidity of the velodromes. As Cycling Weekly reported “silk is lighter than wool, it holds its shape better, and it takes colour well. Silk jerseys proved lighter, brighter, and crucially, faster.”And that was the case during that time trial won by the Cannibal in the 1975 Tour. It was the year that he famously showed weakness two days after being punched in the torso by a spectator. But before then he demonstrated his trademark strength with a setup whose description bears repeating; “… with silk tyres and jersey to match… and a 56-tooth chainwheel”. Our Louise jersey takes the creative thinking of the pioneers on the track and the road during the 50s and 60s and blends silk and merino wool, two of nature's finest fabrics, for ultimate thermoregulation, softness and stability. Take some material gains for this summer's cycling.

Lookbook SS17 Maroc The sentinels of North Africa. The mint tea revolution.

Lookbook AW16 Montagnes The routes that inspire and the clothes they inspire. Autumn Winter at home.

Lookbook AW16 Écosse The land of mists and myths. We arrived in Scotland to shoot and fell in love.

Lookbook SS16 Tenerife Island life. A spring summer release for spring summer riding. All to play for.

Lookbook AW15 Iceland Clothes for colder riding. The land of ice and fire.

Lookbook AW15 Femme Iceland was an experience. Show casing our new Women's Collection as it should be shown.

Le slack How does a style of trouser become a classic rival to the utilitarian jean? Answer: a journey through history and across continents with polar-opposite cultures. If the chino, or 'Le Slack' as we know it in France, was a celebrity it could write one hell of an autobiography. From late 19th century military uniform, via 1950s beatnik anti-fashion, to the modern day thinking man’s alternative to jeans, the chino has done it all. Throw in names like James Dean, Jack Kerouac and Steve McQueen and you have a winner. In stark contrast to today’s bright colourful styles, it started with a British General, Harry Lumsden, in India insisting on a uniform to blend in with the scenery so his men did not highlight themselves as targets. Rumour has it that when bright white became impossible to keep clean, colour was introduced using curry spices, coffee and blackberry juice to create what became known as the ‘khaki’. Meanwhile, the American army were using chinese cloth in the pacific during the Spanish-American war, hence the ‘chino’ label.And there is a strong American influence on the evolution of the cotton pantalon into a modern-day essential. As troops returning from active duty in WW2 wore their army issue trousers to college, the chino became an East Coast Ivy League trend. Hollywood and McQueen added the cool factor and New York and Kerouac provided the edge.Today Le Slack has developed into a versatile pair of trousers - casual yet elegant, capable of being combined with everything from a pastel coloured t-shirt or collared shirts and jackets. And with their military origins background they are, of course, hard-wearing and comfortable.Jack Kerouac took his chinos On The Road and Steve McQueen made his Great Escape in a pair of khakis. So we know they work well on two wheels and our Bernadette cycling city chinos are no exception.

Lookbook SS15 Ville Nice is International by nature. Fly in, ride out.

Lookbook SS15 France Spring Summer comes early in the south. The season is back.