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How Fashion Week started?

This can go back to when humans first started wearing clothes and when we started caring about designs, stitches and colors. Unfortunately, this information will always remain the biggest mystery of the fashion world since nobody recorded this data.

THE FIRST DESIGNER

Charles Fredrick Worth was the first known designer who greatly influenced Parisian fashion in the late 19th century. He defined the modern sense of ‘designer’ and became the first-ever couturier. Around 1850’s, Couturiers used to visit clients at home for fittings. And Worth was the first designer to invite customers to his atelier. From 1860’s, he was the first designer to become globally known and celebrated in the fashion industry.

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SALON SHOWS

Worth started “salon shows” to find and connect with new clients and sell his collection. It was a successful show where many attendees made their selections and had them tailored. Eventually, Worth decided to organize this event twice a year which laid the foundation of Fashion Week.

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Credit: Fashion Plate Collection, 19th Century, https://ccdl.claremont.edu/digital/collection/fpc

NEW YORK, THE 1st SALON SHOW

In 1903, A shop called Ehrich Brothers organized the first fashion show in New York, US. This show was a huge success. By 1910 department stores and designers all over the United States were holding their shows.

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Credit: Italian Rêve

THE 1st FASHION WEEK, PARIS OR NEW YORK?

During World War II and the Nazi occupation in Paris, U.S. journalists couldn’t travel to Paris for fashion events. This is when Eleanor Lambert – the iconic fashion publicist, diverged attention from Paris and grew the fashion week scene in New York. She launched the first “Press Week”. In 1943 the first fashion show the way we experience today took place at The Plaza Hotel and became the foundation of New York Fashion Week. This event was Highly focused on the press. These press weeks later gained popularity as Fashion Week as we know it today.

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Credit: The first New York Press Week, 1943 via Fashion Week Online

FASHION CALENDAR

Ruth Finley, who worked as Eleanor Lambert’s PR Assistant, realized the problem fashion writers faced as two different fashion shows were scheduled for the same time. Ruth started a fashion calendar to organize these events in a way that designers’ show times didn’t clash.