Slow → Search results for ‘Rapha’

2015 — 2016

Another year has passed right before our very eyes. Although, as always, we tried to grasp it every once in a while, it feels like yesterday since the last new years eve. But here we are again after another remarkable, flown by, twelve months with some wonderful things to look back on (and to look forward to!). As per usual there was as little sitting still as possible with some great collaborations realized - among which the rebrand of Travelteq is particularly special - hard work on our own projects and of course trips (business ànd pleasure) all around the world. Both accompanied by bike or just with family and friends. Speaking of those; a wonderful highlight was Tenue's trip to San Francisco, but also the visit to beautiful Porto, Paris with ...,staat, Sweden to partake in the Dalslandrunt15, the exciting trip to Croatia for the upcoming revitalized Our Current Obsessions, and visiting our friends of GERTRUD & GEORGE in Geneva, amongst others. This year also marked some extraordinary steps forward for Tenue de Nîmes with the introduction of the first own designs, several great collaborations of which the Hancock VA coats are a true highlight and finally the presentation of Journal Nº 12. As always we will be back in the new year, with very soon an all new aesthetic and approach for Another Something. Stay tuned and until that moment, enjoy our favorite discoveries of last year. [ Continue reading ]

Mondial

This week a new inspirational project was launched by Rapha. After the brand was one of the original backers of Rouleur magazine back in 2006, it now introduces an all new cycling magazine on its own named Mondial. The elegant and highly inspirational 160-page debut issue is available to Rapha Cycling Club members now, and will be available for the rest of the world in one week. Mondial aims to expand the idea of what road cycling is and what the beautiful sport can be. It will feature incisive longform writing and elegant photography which is one of the fortes of Rapha in the first place. In Mondial you will find familiar cycling topics given a fresh new treatment, while a cycling viewpoint is brought to wider cultural subjects, thus broadening the sport’s reference points. We have been eagerly waiting on a publication like Mondial and applaud how it is done so incredibly well, looking forward to what the inspirational new project will bring in the future! [ Continue reading ]

Utrecht’s Finest

With the official team presentations, which will take place this evening, the Tour de France fever in our hometown Utrecht is slowly reaching a highpoint (with the tropical temperatures of recent days also playing a significant role in this development). Although the little brother of Amsterdam has gained significantly growing international attention in recent years, because of its beautiful canals and historical city center with a more laidback and less touristic atmosphere - for many people the host of the Grand Départ is still unknown territory. As we have been happily living in Utrecht for quite some years now, we teamed up with Rapha to introduce our city properly and created a little map with all of our favorite destinations when it comes to Food & Drinks, Art & Culture, Antiques & Obsessions, Fashion & Design, Markets & Flowers and Hideouts & Escapes, which we named Utrecht's Finest. For those first getting to know Utrecht, or those who are curious what it is what makes the city special for us. [ Continue reading ]

The Trip of The Rising Hills

After some hard, cold and windy cycling in Sweden, participating in the Dalslandrunt15, we look at Rapha's Travel program, which this Summer for the first time will take cyclists on an adventure in Asia. The so called Randonnée+ Japan trip is a tremendous eight days of cultural immersion and hard riding from Tokyo to Kyoto in which we would love to participate. The target behind a Rapha Randonnée+ trip is aimed at experienced ‘roadies’. With diverse terrains to tackle, from narrow tracks to steep climbs in remote locations, the Randonnée+ trips demand slightly more from their participants than standard Randonnées, making it one of the more demanding rides organized by Rapha. The extraordinary Japan trip features several days in the Minami Alps and includes stretches of almost unused access roads through the forests: it’s a truly wild adventure, running from Tokyo and Kyoto, two contrasting but equally remarkable cities. [ Continue reading ]

Return to Tohoku

Today marks exactly the fourth year since the east coast of Japan was devastated by the so-called Great East Japan earthquake and the tsunami that it caused. To remember the disaster and pay his respects, writer and photographer Lee Basford travelled to the area only 70 kilometers away from the epicenter - named Tohoku - where after four years the locals are still rebuilding. One of the cities in the region most affected was Rikuzentakata. The ruthless waves destroyed basically everything, and what remains now is an overwhelming emptiness. The city was noted for its tree-lined coast - regarded as one of the most beautiful landscapes in Japan. But after the disaster, only 1 of the 70.000 trees remained. It became known as The Miracle Pine. A year after the disaster took place, in 2012, Rapha Continental shot a film in the devastated area, and there’s been an annual ride in Tohoku since, organized by Daisuke Kitayama, the film’s director, and Seiichi Watanabe, a Continental rider. These outtakes of Basford and his friend's experiences of riding through the area show both the beauty and hardships of riding, one never really disconnects with the surrounding you are riding in - which in this case resulted in an unfiltered perspective on the struggles of the area. [ Continue reading ]

Double Space

During last year's London Design Festival, in the second collaboration with BMW group, British design duo Jay Osgerby & Edward Barbar created this incredible bespoke installation, the largest structure that they have ever created, for the annual event. The project named ‘Double Space' – Precision & Poetry of Motion— was an immersive experience constructed within the V&A museum‘s prestigious Raphael gallery that combines technical precision with poetic semantics. It was the British creatives’ intention to interpret the leitmotif of BMW’s design philosophy, ‘precision and poetry’, bringing forth an all-encompassing piece that merged technology and sensuality into a single experience. The kinetic installation is composed of two large reflectors, each composed of one flat wall of mirror and one curved surface, hovering over the 600 m² space where Raphael’s famous cartoons for his Sistine Chapel tapestries hang. The two shimmering volumes (each measuring 15 x 10 meters each) revolving on their own axis, either simultaneously or alternatively, collectively citing the monumental size of the Raphael gallery – "A place that cries out something great," according to Osgerby, with which we can only agree. [ Continue reading ]

2014 — 2015

Another year flew by! A year with so many beautiful milestones! The launch of Our Current Obsessions with Gertrud & George. A portrait by Freunde von Freunden. The opening of Fam Stegeman (design project online soon in our portfolio). The tenth issue of the Journal de Nîmes (nr eleven is available next week!). And the collaboration between Tenue de Nîmes and Pastoe.
Some amazing content with your most favourite posts here at Another Something like The Loft, The Monocle Guide to Good Business, Ouur and The Age of Collage.
Thank you all for being part of this, and staying with us all the time!
We promise the new year will bring even more! [ Continue reading ]

Another Winter Playlist

It took a little longer to bring you a new mixtape, but we have made it just in time for tonight's Boxing Day diner. The weather has been very mild so far, but these tunes which have a tendency to be more on the electronic side, will support you through the coldest months of the year. The list starts with one of our favorite releases of the year by Jon Hopkins, followed by Erik Satie and Klara Kormendi and the beautiful 'Oh No' by Röyksopp. From Blue Lagoon's soundtrack Mikael Simpon's 'Slaar Skaar' from 2009 is followed by Nosaj Thing and the new song by former psychedelic J-rock group Yura Yura Teikoku's lead singer Shintaro Sakamoto named 'Birth of the Super Cult'. The list continues with releases by Jamie XX, Flying Lotus, alt-J, Marie Fisker, Young Fathers, Dark Sky and the incredible remix of Jon Hopkins' 'We Dissapear' featuring Lulu James, which we also included on the Summer Playlist. Another favorite release of this year follows; David August's revision of his Dynamic colleagues Kollektiv Turmstrasse's 'Last Day' and of the great Aphex Twin comeback album Syro 'aisatsana [102]', before which releases by Samaris, Jamie T and Daniel Johnston have passed. We conclude our final mixtape of 2014 with another gem which was released last October: Tindersticks' 'Ananas et poivre' of their Ypres album. Enjoy our favorite Winter Tunes here. [ Continue reading ]

Winter in Japan

From December to February, if one takes a trip to the countryside of the Japanese town of Tsukuba, known for its science industry, Siberian winds meet the moist air of the Pacific and innundate the peaks and valleys with snow. Temperatures drop far below zero, and rural inhabitants must plan carefully to survive the long, hard months of winter. These icy temperatures and the sentiment of finding ways in bearing the hard atmosphere, inspired to yet another stunning series by regular collaborator Ben Ingham and Rapha for The Road collection Autumn / Winter 2014 which was designed for riding in extreme condition like the countryside of Tsukuba. The images of Ingham translate the Japanese countryside to a highly grainy aesthetic, as if the winter-cold needed to be feelable directly through the photographs, and overall spoken resulting in one of the rawest series to date which we really like. [ Continue reading ]

Kings of Pain: Masters and Convicts of the Road

Philippe Brunel’s painstakingly assembled anthology of tales and photography named 'Kings of Pain: Masters and Convicts of the Road' quickly became a touchstone for fans of road racing, capturing the ethos and aesthetic of decades of the sport. It is a book born of days in the archives and from countless hours of interviews, making it an indispensible companion for anyone drawn in by the golden age of professional cycling. After spending many years out of print, 'Kings of Pain: Masters and Convicts of the Road' now has been republished by Rapha, featuring re-scanned, duotone photography on Fedrigoni paperstock, bound in high-quality Buckram. All the original Kings  of Pain are captured by Brunel like you rarely see them, the book consistsing of some of the peloton’s most compelling stories and images. Be they brave, fragile, or a touch crazy, this book celebrates the riders as human beings making it a perfect celebration of the sport. [ Continue reading ]

House Industries x Richard Sachs

Last Friday marked the grand opening of the beautiful Richard Sachs exhibition which was designed by House Industries at the Rapha Cycle Club NYC, and will run for the upcoming month. The inspirational exhibition walks through the bicycle builder’s personal industrial revolution from his early days as an apprentice to becoming a modern folk hero in the cycling community. The show highlights the balance of tradition and innovation with which Sachs has built a loyal following and profoundly influenced cycling culture worldwide. House Industries, an internationally-recognized graphic, product and type design firm, has been a long-time supporter of the Richard Sachs program and therefore makes for the perfect partner of this inspirational overview. [ Continue reading ]

The Miti factory by Gavin Karl Campbell

In 2012 Rapha initiated this inspiring factory visit to Italian knitting company Manifattura Italiana Tessuti Indemagliabili or in short Miti shot by the talented English photographer Gavin Karl Campbell. Miti has been an innovator in the knitting industry since its foundation in 1931 and is located in the Northern Italian town of Urgnano, not far from Bergamo. The first and foremost innovation made by the company was the nationwide introduction of wrap knitting techniques, which allows for the construction of durable and stretchy fabrics, introduced by founder Vincenzo Polli through his fascination with the technology and his decision to acquire the German-made machines which would carry it out; establishing Italy’s premier fabric mill. Today the raw fabric is milled six hours away in Hungary, near the border with Slovenia, close enough to monitor total consistency in the highest possible quality after which processing, dyeing and finishing takes place in Urgnano by this major supplier for almost all the cycling brands. [ Continue reading ]

Kings of Pain

At the very start of Rapha, in 2004, they initiated the beautiful 'Kings of Pain' exhibition in the Old Truman Brewery, on London’s Brick Lane, which featured a collection of photography and memorabilia devoted to six iconic riders. Riders who epitomize the key elements which make the sport of road cycling so beautiful. Their stories and images of exploits have come to define road cycling. The original Kings of Pain: Eddy Merckx, Jacques Anquetil, Tom Simpson, Fausto Coppi, Raymond Poulidor and Bernard Hinault, remain, a distillation of road racing’s most celebrated qualities. They embody the glory, suffering and drama of the sport, and their unmistakable styles defined their respective eras. Now, ten years later a capsule collection has been created in honor of the original Kings of Pain, and everyone who has and still does enjoy the, sometimes painful, ride with Rapha during the past decade. [ Continue reading ]

Machine for Riding

This amazing video by Christopher Kippenberger for German bicycle producer VANDEYK catches the sentiment of solitary cycling on a snowy day perfectly. Named after VANDEYK's top of the line carbon fibre road bike collection; 'Machine for Riding' captures the almost spiritual cyclist moments when the sole rider, the wide landscape and trustworthy bicycle hybridize into perfect unity. With a minimalistic 'code' at the core of the design concept, this particular bicycle collection of VANDEYK patronizes the optimal alliance of man and high-performance machinery. The Machine for Riding bicycles were engineered by Formula 1 proven engineer Ralf Brand and fully manufactured in Germany by ax-lightness, making it an amazing product of the finest in carbon fibre technology. The clear goal for the Machine for Riding was to create perfect balance between rider and road, which was immaculately intepretated by Kippenberger. [ Continue reading ]

Another Gift Guide Preview 2013 x Nuji

As a preview of our annual Another Gift Guide we’ve selected 10 of our favorites exclusively for Nuji. Number one is the amazing Nomos Lambda, a wonderful timepiece in 18-carat white or rose gold. Number two are the leather crochet touchscreen gloves by Mujjo, both geeky and style-full. Number three is our all-time favourite the 33” Globe Trotter Centenary in grey and black. Number four is the just released Watch Roll by our friends of Travelteq, a need to have for every watch collector. Illesteva’s Felix Light Tortoise makes a perfect number five. Number six is the lovely collection of City Cycling Guides by Rapha. The beautifully handcrafted apron’s of Editor’s Index is number seven. Eight is the men’s travel essential, Baxter of California’s Travel Kit. Number nine are the amazing rubberised hand-made products of Hancock, with this indigo jacket at Tenue de Nîmes as our favourite. And the last one is this pair of Nike Free Trainers. [ Continue reading ]

Blue Jeans

Over the past year we've been working on an exhibition on denim which opened last week in the Centraal Museum, Utrecht, the Netherlands. Putting together 350 years of denim history into a more than 100 meter long indigo timeline. A rich history including classic paintings from 'The Master of the Blue Jeans' and old sample books dating back to the 18th century, to the designs of Chanel, Jean Paul Gaultier, Maison Martin Margiela, Marithé + François Girbaud and Yves Saint Laurent - and one of the oldest Levi's and Lee jeans to Momotaro, Atelier Tossijn, Naked & Famous and Rapha - it's all there.
We've created a more than 100 meters long cabinet, starting like a loom in an almost black indigo colour, morphing to slate blue and finally ending in a bright white workshop. A three-dimensional timeline showing the rich history of 350 years of Blue Jeans. The exhibition is accompanied with a book we've designed together with Studio wilfredtimo, which will be available at Tenue de Nîmes (a.o.) anytime soon.

Blue Jeans — 23 November 2012 until 10 March 2013,
Centraal Museum, Nicolaaskerkhof 10, Utrecht, the Netherlands, open Tue - Sun 11.00h – 17.00h

For more images click here >
And more on Blue Jeans at the Centraal Museum after the click > [ Continue reading ]

Soigneur No 2

Yesterday Soigneur released its second issue. Another great magazine jam-packed with inspirational stories, lovely portraits and features on the highly needed products all for the love of road cycling. I was invited by Soigneur and Rapha to join them on the road less travelled… [ Continue reading ]

Gage + DeSoto

Recently we were introduced to the New York based Gage + DeSoto, a project in which founder Mike Spriggs combines his profound love (shared by me) of books and cycling. Mike, also a former collaborator with Rapha for the New York Cycle Club, recently opened a small storefront in Brooklyn which is open in the weekends and is doing business online around the clock. Gage + DeSoto has a wonderful bike related collection consisting of magazines, books, notebooks and prints, but also has t-shirts, cycling shirts, cycling hats and helmets and all kinds of accessories which you can use on and with your bike. [ Continue reading ]

Bohemia

While on a short holiday in the Belgium Ardennes, sharing my time with the family and enjoying the hills on my bike, Rapha released a new Continental film: Bohemia. Invited by Soigneur and Rapha Europe we traveled all the way to the very north of the Czech Republic, a region called the Bohemian Switzerland, and had a wonderful weekend chasing the guys on the bike. This time, I didn't brought my bike (Next time I definitely will) but focused on an article for Soigneur, the new dutch cycling magazine (later more on that). [ Continue reading ]

Richard Anderson – Ready to Wear

While in London I’ve visited the good folks at Sane Communications and came back extremely excited and inspired by what they are doing. They’ve just shared one of their new clients, Richard Anderson and his Ready to Wear collection, with me. A wonderful collection of ‘quintessential sartoria’ from… [ Continue reading ]

Cyclepedia

Just in time for the Tour de France and the spirit of the Olympics this Summer: The lovely Cyclepedia app we’ve featured before got a nice upgrade. Some new content and approved features are added with five new video clips with Sir Paul Smith discussing cycling… [ Continue reading ]

Assynt

This is most definitely the best video Rapha made. Beautiful images with a great feeling for aesthetics, the first Rapha Continental UK ride had had its share of weather – rain then sun then a bit of hail, then sun again – changing from one valley to the… [ Continue reading ]

Grand Tour

A new and inspiring video from Rapha, shot by Ben Ingham in the Sierra Nevada, featuring the shoes they’ve released today. In collaboration with Giro, they’ve finally finished their outfit with the Rapha Grand Tour Shoes. I love this video, the sounds, the sweat, the views. [ Continue reading ]