The History of Fashion Week, Part 1

HOW FASHION WEEK CAME TO BE

According to the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, New York Fashion Week brought $900 million of revenue to the city, with over 230,000 people attending the fashion shows every year (Hyland, 2015).

New York and the entire fashion industry owe a lot to Eleanor Lambert.

Eleanor Lambert was born in small-town Indiana in 1903, went to the Art Institute of Chicago for sculpture, and moved to Queens, New York in 1925 where she became a publicist to the artists of New York. In 1932, she had her first designer client, and she had an epiphany. Why were American designers being labeled under the manufacturer's name instead of their own? If American artists could create and sell art under their own name, why couldn't American designers? Shortly after her epiphany, she had lunch with Harper's Bazaar editor, Diana Vreeland, who then told her, "Eleanor, you are such an amateur!" Nonetheless, Lambert was determined to find a way in which American designers could personally represent their designs (Collins, 2004). 

Lambert worked with designers to produce full collections because she wanted to bring fashion editors to New York to see all of the different collections. Because most of the fashion industry was in France at the time, her goal was to get European editors to attend, but that didn't happen. She then ended up paying for lifestyle editors from small American papers to attend. In 1943, the first "Press Week" was held at the Plaza Hotel, exhibiting 53 designers including Norman Norell, Lilly Daché, and Valentina - not Valentino (Tong, 2011). Since the event was exclusively held for the press (it was called "Press Week"...), every editor that attended the shows were given packets of press releases and pictures of each runway look. When Press Week ended, the fashion magazines' next issues featured American designers (Skarda, 2012). Eleanor Lambert's goal had been accomplished, thus setting a precedent for many more press/fashion weeks to come.

A 1930s Cecil Beaton portrait of Eleanor Lambert (Collins, 2004).

The catwalk during Press Week in 1943 (Tong, 2011).

Resources:

Collins, A. (2004). The lady, the list, the legacy. Vanity Fair. Retrieved from http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2004/04/eleanor-lambert200404

Hyland, V. (2015, February 9). New York Fashion Week brought in more revenue than the Super Bowl. Retrieved from http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/02/nyfw-brought-in-more-revenue-than-the-super-bowl.html

Tong, A. (2011, October 8). The first New York fashion week. Retrieved from http://www.oliviapalermo.com/the-first-new-york-fashion-week/