These bikes were seen all over New York for Fashion Week. I photographed this one in front of the Conde Nast building in Times Square. From what I hear it’s supposed to be a pro-bike campaign meant to encourage biking in the city. Funny though that this blitz of chained and unrideable bikes is initiated in the middle of winter when most people don’t ride. Also I wish DKNY had put out nicer bikes that looked like cool or fashionable people actually rode them. Instead their bikes look like the kind that delivery men ride against traffic and even worse, are reminiscent of the white Ghost Bikes throughout the city meant to memorialize a biker killed in that area. There seems to be a bit of controversy about this ad, which I suppose means that DKNY probably succeeded in their campaign. Although not a bad idea I think they could have pulled it off in a much more sophisticated fashion. Unfortunately, they came off looking like posers. They chained up any old ugly bike and assumed it would attract people, and then this awful scene: they got the NYPD to put out the chained bikes. What the hell? With a little research they could have found out that bikers and the NYPD DO NOT GET ALONG. The fact that DKNY was too lazy to hire their own street team and even worse used the city biker’s nemesis to support their ad campaign shows that this stunt had little to do with promoting “transportation alternatives” and had more to do with DKNY attempting to appear hip as quickly and cheaply as possible. I think DKNY was cool in like, 1993 when the acronym was mysterious and rolled so nicely off the tongue and they had an awesome building sized ad at the corner of Houston and Broadway. These days though, I don’t think they can compete with the boutiques and independent labels who are much closer to the fashion vibes of this city.