Part 1: The Birth | Part 2: Making the Mark | Part 3: The Glitz Factor
There is currently a feud amongst fashion capitals regarding the next Fashion Week calendar dates. New York is set to overlap a couple of days with Milan this time. To avoid a showdown, the rounds of closed-door meetings are in effect to avert a fashion malfunction. Drama and fashion, who would ever think of it?
But really, when did New York Fashion Week actually come about? We know that Paris has been a fashion capital forever and is the archetype for collection line-ups. New York Fashion Week actually began during WWII, once transatlantic travel stopped and Paris closed shop when the Nazis entered the city. Not that Adolf Hitler should be credited, but this dark side of history forced the Americans to keep the fashion flame alive.
- New York Fashion Week, 1950s
The woman behind New York Fashion Week, the Coty Award, and the International Best Dressed List, is the great fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert who sprung into action in 1943 and started “Press Week.” From then on editors and buyers would check out and sample the local collections in Manhattan.
Eleanor Lambert, photo by Peter Fink, Paris
Bonnie Cashin and Charles James at the Coty Awards, 1950
The following year, in 1944, Ruth Finley established the “Fashion Calendar,” the definitive guide to all shows and presentations, which helped organize times and locations. These two ladies helped transform New York, making it not only a consumer center for fashion, but also putting the manufcturing and design communities on the fashion map, so to speak.
Ruth Finley with the famous Fashion Calendar
Legend has it that as soon as the armistice was declared, Diana Vreeland, then editor at Harper’s Bazaar, asked for proof that Paris fashions had survived. A silk rose was sent and all went back to its original schedule… but New York’s presence remained in place…
Fashion photographer Richard Avedon, and fashion editor of Harper's Bazaar, Diana Vreeland, supervise a fashion shoot of jewelery at Tiffany's
More fashion week history to come…
Part 1: The Birth | Part 2: Making the Mark | Part 3: The Glitz Factor
Gertrude Stein with her dog Bernie at a fashion show, Paris
Click on a topic to view all articles related to that topic.
[...] 1: The Birth | Part 2: Making the [...]
[...] Comments Part 1: The Birth | Part 2: Making the Mark | Part 3: The Glitz [...]
[...] likely to see at least some of these animal prints and various other patterns in the upcoming New York Fashion Week.Etro – Fall 2013-Winter 2014Versace – Fall 2013-Winter 2014Etro – Fall [...]
[...] WWII allowed American sportswear to come into its own, as Europe was literally cut-off from the rest of the world throughout the war. Though, don’t think that sportswear happened overnight; if you look deeply into its development, the late 19th century shows early signs. Today, Claire McCardell is the undisputed hero of that genre, the individual who coincidentally perfected the prototype for ready-to-wear/prêt-à-porter. Yes, we are all American sportswear disciples in the way we dress. [...]