New York Fashion Week
October 11th, 2009 | Author: admin
The origins of New York Fashion Week can be traced to 1943 when Eleanor Lambert, a woman called by some ‘the mother of American fashion publicity,’ organized the first ever Press Week in New York City. The event showcased American designers, thus bringing the likes of Bill Blass and Geoffrey Beene onto the pages of fashion rags like Harper’s Bazaar, a publication that had before been filled with mainly French and Italian designers. American fashion was in Vogue.
But it took years to become organized. While fashion shows and press weeks became increasingly popular, the entire experience was disorganized and disconcerting for all involved. Even with the founding of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Inc. (CFDA) in 1962, there was no real governing body that brought the industry together. Fern Mallis came to the CFDA in 1991, where she took on the role of executive director. She was able to put her background in AIDS fundraising, special event planning, public relations, and marketing to good use. At the time, the CFDA was a small company, the office literally comprised of a desk and a chair; by the time she left more than 10 years later, they had grown to be an office of 40. Her role in the CFDA was broad; she went to work redesigning the logo, organizing a 7th on Sale event as well as the CFDA Fashion Awards, which are essentially the Oscars of the fashion world. But her job did not entail the organization of the industry as a whole.
The rest is history. Fashion Week in New York City was born, and each year became better than the last. “This really changed the whole fashion landscape by equalizing what was going on in the world between Paris, Milan, and London. New York took its rightful place, and that really helped launch many, many design brands worldwide, because now we had a place to invite the international buyers to come and see an organized schedule, registered press list, a whole machinery that we created from need and common sense. We put the whole project together. I am extremely proud of what that meant for the industry and what that did for New York City and fashion in general.”
The powers that be in fashion and the city of New York are proud of her as well. She received an award from the Fashion Group International at their annual ‘Night of Stars’ for helping change the face of fashion, and she was honored in December 2006 by NYC & Co. with their “Leadership in Tourism Award,” for helping place NYC firmly on the global fashion map. Due to her ongoing efforts, IMG Fashion estimates that “several thousand buyers, retailers, and members of the national and international press from 32 countries attend the shows each season, generating thousands of articles and hundreds of hours of television coverage.”
There is no doubt that the current global impact of fashion is thanks to Mallis’ dedication and drive. With her behind the reigns at IMG Fashion, it seems there is no limit to where fashion weeks can crop up. As she says, “Fashion plays such an important part in our lives. It’s a tool that’s so much of everybody.” So whether you live in New York or Pakistan, in Kuala Lumpur or Singapore, what you see on the runway, and therefore in the stores and on the streets, is thanks to Fern Mallis’ vision for a global fashion market.
Posted in Fashion Cities