Tour De Fashion

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Bike by designer Lela Rose Credit: Tour de Fashion

Twice a year, dozens of stone-faced models march down the runways of New York Fashion Week wearing marvelous clothes that very few of us can even begin to afford. Fewer still will be invited to grace the front row seats of the runway spectacles themselves (hint: be rich, powerful, or a Real Housewife). Regular folks need not apply, though there’s usually enough media coverage to tide over most casual observers. Trends may come and go, but Fashion Week remains a high-visibility, low-access affair.

During this year’s Fashion Week, however, all New Yorkers get a front-row seat - a bicycle seat, that is. From September 8 - 15, the Fashion Center Business Improvement District (BID) is sponsoring Tour de Fashion, a limited-time bike share program that makes a fleet of 30 bicycles available to the public for free 90-minute rides around town. The bicycles have been creatively (and in some cases outrageously) customized by some of New York City’s best fashion designers, including industry superstars like Diane Von Furstenburg, Isaac Mizrahi, Betsy Johnson and Elie Tahari as well as up-and-comers like Prabal Gurung and Project Runway winner Gretchen Jones.

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