Tour de Fashion’s “Ready to Ride” bikes are available to ride now and onward through New York Fashion Week.

With Fashion Week upon us here in New York City, stylish men and women wanting to make way through the streets of the city in anything but a cab or underground are able to tap into something a lot more fun: decorated bikes by some of the world’s top designers.

The Fashion Center Business Improvement District is bringing the glamor, excitement and fun of Fashion Week to the streets of the Garment District with Tour de Fashion – a free, ‘ready-to-ride’ bicycle event including thirty bicycles, creatively customized by New York’s top designers. Bikes decorated by Doo-Ri Chung, Diane Von Furstenberg, Betsey Johnson, Nanette Lepore, Isaac Mizrahi and some of our sustainable favorites like RESTORE Clothing and Gretchen Jones will be available during Fashion Week September 8-15.

The Tour de Fashion bicycle fleet, purchased by the Fashion Center from Bowery Lane Bicycles, are handmade in New York City and will be available at tented bike stations located on the Broadway Plazas at 40th Street. Interested in buying one of the stylish cycles? Bids started today for post-fashion week purchase. Get on it by going here to Charity Buzz.

Had it not downpoured for the kickoff bike ride, you would’ve seen me proudly riding a bike from RESTORE but instead, we all huddled under tents in the Fashion District.

Check out who we saw.

(Above, Barbara Randall, Fashion Center BID Director)

Designer, Yeohlee Teng on her Cutter Ant bike

The Fashion Center’s bike (above left) and below, bike designer Emily Saunders

Designer, Emily Saunders

Designer, Sarah Canner, Bowery Lane Bicycles owner, Patrick Bernard, and RESTORE’S Anthony Lilore

Nicole Miller’s stylish ride

Designer Betsey Johnson rocks her bike with roses and VIP passes

The winner for best helmet? Betsey Johnson

Rebecca Minkoff gets inspired with studs

Gretchen Jones’ Talisman bike channeling Patti Smith and Don Juan

Feather extensions with KAELEN

Nanette Lepore ties a bow on it

Nanette Lepore and Carlos Falchi

Images: Amy DuFault

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You know all those one-off earrings that used to be a pair, but you lost their counterpart ages ago and just couldn’t bring yourself to toss them out? Well now is your chance to bring them back out in style because the mis-match earring trend is revived! The key to pulling off this trend is to make sure the earrings have some crossover. For instance, they may have the same stone – just placed differently, or they may be inverse copies of one another. They should look like they go together and yet are noticeably different.

One of the best places to drum up some inspiration and scoop up a pair of these asymmetrical earrings is on Etsy, where independent designers handcraft jewelry, often using re-purposed bits from previous pieces. If you are more of a studs girl, have a look at Macha Jewelry for a new ‘diamond’ stud made of contrasting recycled gold and silver. Swap out one diamond for an eco-friendly heart from Christine Mighion and you’ve created your own mis-match pair. Finally, a trend that makes use of your not-so-forgotten castaways and a unique sense of styling!

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Blake Mycoskie, founder of Tom’s shoes in Venice, CA, and a former contestant on The Amazing Race, gives away a pair of shoes for every pair his company sells. He’s now donated over 115,000 pairs through a series of Shoe-Drop tours around the world.

Why?

To give children the opportunity to wear shoes through his One For One program of course, but also because an explosive trend in conscious consumerism is upon us. We want to know who we’re buying from, the size of their carbon footprint and yes, if the people who made it were paid a reasonable amount to do the work.

Giving product and money to causes is part of the new distribution of designer wealth and it’s what’s we want to see. Designers big and small see the benefits of this.

EDUN founders, Bono of U2 and Ali Hewson founded their company in 2005 featuring organic clothing, graphic tees and eco-clothing with a mission to drive sustainable employment in developing economies.

Other designers like Betsey Johnson, Iman, Tory Burch and Nicole Miller have done everything from support the environment to donate to AIDS awareness, breast cancer research and school nutrition programs.

Maybe they do it because they realize how good it feels to give.

Maybe they do it because the numbers add up better if they do it, but maybe, just maybe they do it so that when their kids ask them in ten years: “Mommy, what did you do to help the world?”

Mommy can then look them straight in the eye and say, “A lot.”

Image: Garry Knight

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