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Wearing: Karen Walker Posie Pleats top | Lilya navy suede shorts | ASOS Exceptional elastic ankle boots | ASOS suede cross body bag | Phoebe Coleman Take Flight feather necklace | Mimco Short Circuit gold bangle | vintage butterfly ring | Pandora gold opal ring | Dior Vernis nail lacquer in ‘lili’ | Papillionaire Sommer bike 8 speed regular in cream | Nutcase cream helmet via Papillionaire

Presenting.. my new set of wheels, created by the lovely people at the Papillionaire workshop in Collingwood – thank you! You may have seen me traversing around the neighbourhood lately – it’s been so much fun to own that I’ve only just gotten around to posting about it here. I first came across Papillionaire a couple of years ago whilst doing some virtual window shopping and just loved range of vintage styled bikes and the huge variety of customisable accessories (bells vs flugel horns, cute nutcase helmets..) that they had. So I was so thrilled to be invited to create a custom built bike and to finally see it in person after the whole process!

I think it took me a good week or more to settle down on the exact specifications and design of my bike. Decisions on frame colour, basket weave, tyre colour and saddle style seem easy on the face of it, but when you’re contemplating something you know you’re going to ride for many years, you want to get it right! So after so many mock up designs online (#timewellspent, #iswear), I finally decided on an eight speed bike with a cream frame. I was super close to choosing a brightly coloured peach or mint green frame, but I ended up making the decision to keep it simple and classic with cream – since I already have so much colour in my life. However, I couldn’t resist adding a personal touch of colour via a mint green bike bell which coincidentally matched the papillionaire logo, as well as removable baskets for the front and back, for riding with your hands free, grocery shopping at the local shops and what not.

And of course, bike riding is always more fun when done in style. These easy breezy Lilya shorts and loose and flowy tops paired back with comfortable boots are my go-to riding combo for navigating the back streets and trails.

I’m more than happy to answer any bike-building qs you might have. Otherwise, I’ll see you on the bike trails :-)