Long Beach Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal. Photo: Melissa Balmer

Not too long ago we shared (in one of our most popular blogs) that the Italian fashion house Missoni had created a line of custom home goods for Target including the boldly patterned comfort bike for women. Today Jerry Hirsch reports in the Los Angeles Times in the article “Fashion Designers Put Their Marque on Bicycles” that the Missoni bike nearly sold out when it debuted in September. Other designers and design houses have also been inspired to create “fashion” bikes of late including Kate Spade, and a bevy of other top designers. For New York’s recent fashion week the “Fashion Center Business Improvement District” created the innovative idea of  “Tour de Fashion” borrow-a-bicycle program with thirty fashion designers putting their unique stamp on a customized bike. At the end of the fashion week the bikes were auctioned off.

So now that top creative minds like Ralph Lauren are being inspired by the popularity of Tweed rides to create not only a designer bike but an entire line of “bicycle inspired clothing” how do we harness this energy to help us actually increase the number of people riding bikes?

Can fashion help us out? We think so. We here at Bikeable Communities think we have a powerful new approach. That’s why we’re collaborating with Long Beach Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal, Andrea White-Kjoss CEO & President of Bikestation, as well as local and regional advocates, electeds, city staffs, business leaders and talented creatives for the “Women on Bikes SoCal” program that we’ll be launching in November. Our vision is to encourage, engage and empower women and girls of all ages, races and walks of life in the Southern California region in the beauty and benefits of bicycling, and to double the number of women and girls actively riding bikes.

Why are we focusing on Women? Women are the indicator species. If women feel safe and comfortable riding bikes the whole family will ride. But though we women absolutely have safety and comfort concerns that are paramount and need to be addressed, we are also moved and motivated greatly by beauty and style. Fashion has real power. Of course the Missoni bike almost selling out is one indicator, but so are the fast rise in popularity of the sleek new European inspired bikes by Public, Linus and Electra bikes – all California based companies. I have posted on one of my vision boards the “Last Look” page from Vogue Magazine in June 2009 featuring a designer bike by Fendi. The Cycle Chic world wide phenomenon from Denmark began in 2006.

We here at Bikeable Communities feel if we can engage the female focused lifestyle media in an active and ongoing conversation on the benefits of bike riding we can accomplish a one-two punch. By getting the story out in a variety of interesting, engaging female friendly ways we can not only invite a broad new audience to consider the bike as a perfect urban transit tool but then also invite them to the education that helps make it very safe too. Intrigued? Want to know more of what we have planned? Send me an email to bikeablecommunities@gmail.com.

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.

Cycle Chic is a burgeoning World Phenomenon.

Mikael, its founder,  will explain what Cycle Chic is all about and the everyday experience of riding bikes in Copenhagen.  At the end of the video, the camera focuses on an unnamed place in Australia for a quick, superficial comparison of two cycling cultures.  At minute 6:40 you’ll hear someone explain why they won’t be cycling to work on Monday morning and it has nothing to do with “chic” . . .

The second part of the interview is also available.
Go to http://situp-cycle.com to see Talking to Mikael.

Casey, Rebeca & Tori in front of Berlin coffee house on 4th

Yes, people we are in a bike boom and it’s a beautiful thing. I have taken to carrying my camera with me wherever I go so I can try to capture a bit of our unique LB bike flavor. Recently this summer I was sitting downtown at Berlin Coffee House enjoying a delicious breakfast (Have you been? No? You need to go!) when I spied these lovely young riders. I was inspired by their energy and their look.

I’m afraid I have their order mixed up (girls, please forgive me) but I wanted to share that Casey is a hairdresser, Rebeca works for Apple, and Tori works for homeless services. These young women are passionate about bicycling and Long Beach and they are exactly the type of young women I’d love to recruit into Bikeable Communities (hint hint) for an upcoming project focused on the importance of style and design for successful advocacy.

And now to my headline. Can you imagine how delighted I was when I picked up the latest issue of Time Magazine on Friday? Here’s why, right in their “Briefing” section in the front under “Economy” is a short piece called “Another Day Another Dollar.” The piece illustrates a selection of items that we are spending both more and less on – comparing first quarter 2007 to first quarter 2011.

No one will be surprised that both lottery ticket purchases are up (16%), and alcohol consumption is up (5%) but the truly exciting part is that bike sales are up 9%! For the LBC that means about 41,400 new bikes on the road. I would so love to know how many of those riders are “first time since childhood” riders like myself. I have a feeling it’s a large majority.

Of course anyone who stands on any corner just about anywhere in Long Beach could have told you this.  As could the owners of the several new bike shops that have opened in the past year around Long Beach. For some reason though, it makes it feel even more important that Time (quoting data from the Department of Commerce) would notice this trend and include it in their article. This is especially sweet for me because for the past several months I’ve been trying to interest a journalist who writes frequently for Time into the whole bike boom story (starring Long Beach of course) and she just hasn’t felt it has reached a tipping point. Perhaps now she will.

There was another very positive increase – foreign travel is up in the U.S. 17%. I’ll get into why that’s good for Long Beach in my next blog!

Image by Bernhard Angerer for Cyclepedia: A Century of Iconic Bike Design

We live in an era where style matters more than ever. On Charlie Gandy’s recommendation I’m currently reading the entertaining best seller “The Substance of Style” by Virginia Postrel. If you need to get the word out about your bike minded service, product or advocacy I highly recommend you read it. In the book Postrel notes that “sensory appeals are becoming ever more prominent in our culture” and “in a crowded marketplace aesthetics is often the only way to make a product stand out.”

Bikes and bike riding are “in” right now and I say we strike while the iron is hot. Let’s take the ball and run with it. Let’s move into a new era of bicycle advocacy and learn from the masters and see how fun and alluring we can get.

On that note September’s Vanity Fair magazine (both print and online) features a fascinating array of photos from the upcoming book  “Cyclepedia: A Century of Iconic Bicycle Design” by Michael Embacher and photographer Bernhard Angerer.

Consider yourself a fine bike/pedestrian related photographer in your own right? The Alliance for Biking & Walking just launched the “2011 People Powered Movement Contest” with more than $8,000.00 in prizes to give away. I wonder if our own Allan Crawford knows about this…

On the apparel front a recent treehugger.com article (as well as a variety of trend reports) noted that Levi’s has a new style of jeans coming out focused at cyclists. As thrilled as I am about the new Levi’s, I have to agree with Alexis Lantz of the LACBC – where are the bike focused jeans for the ladies? Hello? The Gap is apparently moving some of its creative staff to an office in downtown Los Angeles to be more connected with the “street” vibe. Might some lean and mean fixie riders show up in some of their next campaigns? Stay tuned to find out.