New York’s First Fashion Week: Eleanor Lambert

1Eleanor Lambert
2eleanor-lambert-desk

Did you ever wonder how New York Fashion Week started? Single handedly by Eleanor Lambert, the press director of American fashion’s first promotional organization, the New York Dress Institute (in the 1940’s during the height of the WW2). It was initially called “Press Week”. She organized semi-annual Fashion Press Weeks in New York often paying expenses and coordinating schedules for journalists as Paris dealt with Nazi occupation. The events spread overseas to European capitals. And here we are decades later at the New York Fashion Week kick off. Fascinating!

Photos of Eleanor Lambert via:

  1. Fashion Indie
  2. CFDA

Here’s a great podcast about Eleanor and the birth of NY Fashion Week’s on WNYC.