How the Council of Fashion Designers of America got started – WWD

The Council of Fashion Designers of America was founded in 1962 by Eleanor Lambert with the goal of bringing designers out of the backroom of Seventh Avenue and into the spotlight. His mission was to help put American fashion on the map.

Lambert, who hails from Crawfordsville, Ind., studied sculpture and did fashion design and fashion reporting, which led her to New York and her work as press director of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the New York Press Director of the Costume Institute.

In the year In 1942, Lambert presided over the first Press Week for Designers, a time when collections were suggested so that designers could gather targeted buyers from around the US and the first Coty Awards, a precursor to the CFDA Awards. In the 60s, more than 200 buyers attended the New York fashion collections, which began to rival the level of attendance at the Paris shows. Designers like Bill Blass and Geoffrey Beene had moved out of the backrooms, but there was still a pervasive sense that Seventh Avenue was dominated by the merchants and manufacturers who dominated the industrial trade groups and the union agenda.

At that time, Sens. Claiborne Pell and Jacob Javits approached Lambert to participate in their development of the National Council on the Arts, which promoted painting, music, dance, and fashion in America. American art requires the involvement of a non-profit organization rather than a commercial industry or business.

Lambert assembled a group of designers – Blass, Norman Norell, Jane Derby, Luis Estevez, Rudi Gernreich, Donald Brooks, Arnold Scaasi, Sydney Wragge and Ben Zuckerman – to form the CFDA. according to The charter was presented on December 6, 1962. Its mission was “to establish fashion design as a recognized branch of American art and culture” and “to promote its artistic and professional status.” Within a month, other designers joined.

Lambert in 2011. “All I did was start,” he recalled in a 2000 WWD interview. “I always say that people coming together as a community helps to develop their identity as a whole. We were a group of people who were equally capable and equally minded about moving forward. There is a difference between business people and artists. At that time I represented the coat factory to one of our meetings who was upset that he was not included, and said, ‘Okay, do you have a designer? I never met him, he replied, ‘It’s in the back room. Is that where he should be right?’

The change in mindset was instantaneous. Before the CFDA, the largest trade group was the New York Couture Group, which had only accredited manufacturers as members. Many were content to travel to Paris each season to buy gowns from Couture, but Lambert convinced a large team to make replicas off-line.

Arnold Scaci once said, “The key was to hire creative designers, and ‘innovative’ was a very important word at the time.” “He really stood up when you did that.”

In 2010, he put American talent on the global fashion radar. Lambert was instrumental in organizing American fashion events around the world, including the 1973 “Battle of Versailles” designer show. Bill BlassOscar de la Renta, Halston, Stephen Burroughs and Anne Klein showed for America, while Pierre Cardin, Hubert de Givenchy, Yves Saint Laurent, Emanuel Ungaro and Marc Bohan of Christian Dior showed for Paris.

Lambert in 2010. She received the CFDA Lifetime Achievement Award in 1988 and the CFDA Industry Tribute Award in 1993. She died in 2003 at the age of 100.

Today, the CFDA has grown exponentially and counts more than 500 of America’s top womenswear, menswear and accessories designers as members.

In addition to producing the annual CFDA Awards, which recognize the industry’s top talent, the organization also owns the Fashion Calendar and New York Fashion Week: Men’s Forum. of The CFDA offers programs that support professional development and scholarship, including the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, the Geoffrey Benn Design Scholarship Award, and the Liz Claiborne Design Scholarship Award.

In the year In 2013, the Fashion Manufacturing Initiative was created to nurture, grow, and sustain apparel manufacturing in New York City. Member support is provided by the Strategic Partnerships Group, a high-profile group of companies providing designers with strategic opportunities.

The CFDA Foundation Inc. It is a separate non-profit organized to bring together members to raise money for charitable causes. Through the Foundation, CFDA created and manages the global Fashion Targets Breast Cancer initiative, puts together events for HIV and AIDS organizations such as Fashion Night and Seventh on Sale, and aligns Model Health with CFDA’s health initiatives.