midnight bike rides: suit style

most people who know me know that i use any and every excuse to dress up. halloween, zombie walks, drag shows, theme parties... in fact, even just any regular dinner party at my house often ends up in me and my friends going through my closet, trying on all of my hats and vintage frames. so when i heard about les "cavaliers de la pleine lune," my heart went all aflutter! bike rides AND costumes??! yes! from the invite:

Le temps est venu de chevaucher vos montures pour une autre randonnée nocturne sous l'oeil protecteur de la pleine lune. Le départ se fera samedi 29 mai à 23h sur le parvis de l'église St-Roch. Vous êtes invités à apporter vos lumières, lampes de poche, costumes bigarrés et autres éléments festifs qui feront de cette randonnée une réussite!

loosely translated for you non-frenchies: "the time has come to saddle up and go for a (k)night ride under the watchful eye of the full moon... bring your bike lights, flashlights, fancy costumes and any other festive elements to make this a successful night!" this pretty much amounts to what my ontarion cyclist friends referred to as Midnight Bike Rides, but with some added "fance" as natalie would put it (definatalie is definitely rubbing off on me these days). so i invited a bunch of friends and delved into my closet to see what would be most cavalier for this occassion.

i ended up finding my bow tie and immediately knew what i wanted to wear; my tuxedo style white button up dress shirt, high waisted pencil skirt, backseam stockings, beaten up boots. i decided against suspenders and decided to braid my hair kind of femme-y in the back even with the men's hat. here are some pictures. (excuse the crappy webcam photos!)

karina and i know how to have fun.

i got tons of compliments all evening, lots of comparisons to charlie chaplin and being asked what i was all dressed up for/who i was dressed up as. in reality, i was trying to channel one of my style inspirations. the one, the only, janelle monae. she's has been making the round on fashion blogs (like here at the always wonderful threadbared and over here at dapperq) these days, but i've been a fan of hers for years now! (don't make me prove it)

honestly, i would give anything to have access to janelle monae's closet these days... she rocks spotless saddle shoes, perfectly tailored suits (which do not come cheap, my friends... even the crappy suit i have cost me more than i would like to admit) and beautiful bold bowties.

and of course, if you haven't already seen it, here her latest video for "tightrope" that everyone is going crazy for.

also: the longer my hair gets, the more i want to wear suits, suspenders, ties and bowties... but this topic deserves a post of its own.

speaking of bowties: the lovely dapperqueers blog is having a bowtie contest for the month of june! check out their blog if you want some bowtie wearing inspiration, they post amazing style.

so without further ado, here are some more pictures of the wonderful saturday evening i spent with karina and a dozen other midnight bike riders. what friendly and lovely strangers.

waiting for the other midnight (k)night riders




the crowd assembles! we can soon begin our adventure


as we waited around, two people asked me if i was part of a performance, if there was going to be a play. i suppose wearing a bowtie and hat will do that.




taking a water fountain break after a little ride


we decided to make a little fire by the side of le fleuve st. laurent and ending up having lovely conversations for hours! a really nice group of people.



we headed home around 2:30 in the morning, and will hopefully reunite in a month's time, under the full moon!