It’s safe to say that there’s so much to see packed into the city of London that going on one of their many guided tours may be the only way to see everything.  Built along the Thames River in England, it’s a city with a history that extends back two millennia. The hardest part of taking the guided tours of London is where to start first. 

You might want to take a double-decker red bus tour just to get the lay of the land.  They’re inexpensive tours to take and you can decide where you want to spend your time.  Another fun tour is one that takes you around to all of the  afternoon tea places London has to offer.  Who says you can’t have just one of those scrumptious scones with clotted milk and jam?

Many guided tours of London will take you to St. Paul’s Cathedral, one of the tallest buildings in London and home to the wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles in 1981.  Tourists can visit the whispering gallery as well as the tombs of many past famous individuals in London’s history.  Westminster’s Abbey is also beautiful and was home to the funeral of Princess Diana.

In London, most guided tours will show you both Buckingham Palace, the home of the Queen of England and the famous “changing of the palace guard”.  It’s really touristy but worth saying that you’ve been there.  Kensington Palace has elegant grounds and was home to Prince Charles and Princess Diana.  Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens and Holland Park Gardens are nearby and are perfect places to meet up with your fellow tourists or to take a short walk.

No guided tours of London will forget to take you to see Big Ben, the London Bridge and the infamous Tower of London.  The Tower of London would be a good place to get off the bus and take a leisurely tour of the place.  Historically, the Tower of London housed numerous criminals and was the execution spot for several infamous people, particularly Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII.  Perhaps the most beautiful place to see inside the tower is the vault containing England’s crown jewels.  Visitors ride a conveyor belt in a darkened room that highlights the glittering jewels.

If you’re lucky, you’ll be on one of the guided tours of London that allows you a lengthy stop at the British Museum.  Clearly one of the premiere museums in all of the world, the British Museum houses mostly procured (stolen) goods from all over the world, including a great deal of Egyptian pieces.  The famed Rosetta Stone can be seen up close and personal along with ancient artifacts brought home when British explorers visited ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt.  If your tour guide allows it, spend as much time as you can inside that museum as there are things you’ll never see anywhere else.

Perhaps, you’ve got time for nightlife? If you’re on one of the guided tours of London that extends for a few days, take in a play, a musical or even buy group tickets to see the Royal Ballet.  Maybe you’ll all get tickets to Leicester Square where you can take in a world film premiere.  In addition, many shopping areas are open late and there are so many restaurants that can round out your tour of this exciting city.

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.