Flipping again through the August issue of Vogue today, I realized I had totally missed (on page 118 – in an article about the resurgent popularity of the Italian fashion house Missoni) that Missoni has designed a woman’s three speed comfort bike for Target. This bike will be available exclusively online and debuts September 13th. I can’t tell you how delighted I am. When I went to Google to search for a photo I found quite an array; about 1,480,000 entries for “Missoni + bike.”  Wow.

The bike sells for $400.00.  I have no idea what quality to expect, but that isn’t the point of  today’s article. My point is to illustrate how fashion affects the popular conversation. I’m not sure I could have come up with a better example of how the fashion media can lead a lifestyle trend conversation and begin to open minds and hearts to something new.

Apparently this new bike has been a buzz item since May. Recently on SFist.com writer Brock Keeling wrote on Arts + Events online, “This, if anything, could get us hitting the city streets on two wheels,” on August 16 it made it into the L.A. Times Home section online along with other highlights of the new Missoni Target collection.

If we want to seriously engage and enroll a much larger portion of women into the bike movement we will need to take heed of what the great fashion houses do so well, which is plan ahead and give their lines time to flourish beautifully by keeping things fresh with new takes, new colors, new innovation, and of course great marketing and p.r. campaigns. FYI: it could not have been easier to find a beautiful photo of the bike to show off and share with you today.