THOUGHT YOU KNEW PINUPS? Think again.
Ahhhh… the lovely image of a pinup riding a bicycle! Skirts tend to fly as the pedals spin faster, an experience some of us are all too familiar with. But most pinups are only posing as cyclists. As a new chapter in bicycle pinup history, photographer Kim Capriotti and illustrator Jana Kinsman have taken real female cyclists from Chicago and transformed them into pinup fantasies.
PROCESS: 50 women enter, 12 pinups emerge
Cyclists from all over Chicago applied to be in the 2012 Thought You Knew [TyK] pinup calendar. We diligently reviewed every application to ensure the display of the appropriate gamut of gams [that’s legs to you]. Those selected chose their pinup ‘alter-ego,’ and then handed themselves over to the professionals to be forever changed.
From applying a lady’s first-ever glossy red lipstick, to a maiden voyage into the wide world of hair rollers, we made sexy a reality for everyone. A milkmaid with her stable of bikes? Coquettish. Napoleon on a rearing steel steed heading off to battle? Saucy. Each lady got to display her own particular charms.
Illustrations complete each image, telling the background story of the pose in pen and ink. In keeping with classic pinup tradition, we make certain never to distract from the main subject. Every pinup, after all, needs a place to shine.
MISSION: It ain’t what you got… it’s knowin’ you got it.
Beyond putting the most slammin’ hot pinups possible onto a calendar page, TyK is dedicated to helping women become more confident. Confident not only on their bikes, but in the rest of their lives. Cycling once freed women from the strict requirements of fashion, providing an excuse to untie their corsets and don bloomers rather than long skirts. The mobility that a bicycle brought to those women was even more empowering.
TyK’s pinups draw on that same tradition of empowerment through the personal mobility, while also letting women find confidence in the ownership of their sexuality. The experience of being the center of attention during their photo shoot does not fade when the lights go down and the hairspray washes out. Each woman carries her pinup self with her wherever she goes, into board rooms or bike shops.
Check out our amazing crew that put this all together.
