Fern Mallis, 1948

Fern-Mallis-WWP

Mallis in 2016 in NYC. Photo credit - Shutterstock

Fashion industry consultant and philanthropist. The co-creator of New York Fashion Week. Often referred to as “The Godmother of Fashion.”



Fern Mallis was born in Brooklyn, NYC. Her father sold females’ scarves in the Garment District, and when as a kid, she used to go with him to work, escorting him in his meetings with customers and fashion directors, as well as watching the scarves designers. After high school, she attended University at Buffalo, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. At age 21, while still at college, she was selected as a guest editor at Mademoiselle magazine, first as an art editor and later as a merchandising editor. When the fellowship was over, they offered her a job. At 27, she left the magazine and worked at Gimbels East for a while, before founding a relations firm for architects and interior designers with two of her friends.

At age 43, Mallis decided to return to the fashion industry and was hired as an executive director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) – the governing body of fashion designers and runway shows in the US. At this position, she organized the annual CFDA Fashion Awards Galas and launched numerous charities, including the Fashion Targets Breast Cancer and the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS. In 1993, alongside Stan Herman, CFDA ‘s president at the time, she created the 7th on Sixth – a weeklong event that provided a platform for fashion designers to display their work. This annual event, which later became known as NYC Fashion Week, soon grew into an international venue. In 2001, the Fashion Week concept was acquired by IMG company, and Mallis was appointed its Senior VP of IMG Fashion. Under her leadership, Fashion Week became a global phenomenon, with annual shows happening worldwide, from LA and Miami to Berlin, Mumbai, and Sydney. There, she organized the events and served as a judge and as a mentor. At the age of 62, she left IMG to found an international fashion and design consultancy – Fern Mallis LLC. Two years later, she launched a jewelry line called FERN FINDS.

Over the years, Mallis featured on many TV programs, such as Project Runway, She’s Got the Look, and America’s Next Top Model. She hosted a conversation series at the 92nd Street Y, in which she interviewed leading figures in the fashion industry, among them, are Donna Karan, Tom Ford, Diane von Furstenberg, and Oscar de la Renta. She serves as a board member of various organizations, including the Partnership for the Homeless, the Steering Committee for NYCx Design Week, and Tara Jewels in Mumbai, India.

Fashion Culture | Fashion Lives: Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis

Fern Mallis, creator of New York Fashion Week, introduces her new book, Fashion Lives: Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis. The book offers 19 interviews with American fashion luminaries--such as Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs, and Tom Ford--from Mallis's ongoing series of conversations at New York's prestigious 92nd Y.

This event was held March 1, 2016 at The Museum at FIT, NYC.

#FashionCulture
#MuseumatFIT

http://www.fitnyc.edu/museum/events/

Share:

This post is also available in:
Español

 

“Stay focused. Be honest. Be nice. Stay true to your core beliefs. Don’t burn bridges.”

“Stay focused. Be honest. Be nice. Stay true to your core beliefs. Don’t burn bridges.”

Fun Facts

  • She is still a consultant in fashion weeks all over the world.
  • She is a strong advocate for Sustainable fashion.
  • Her final interview for the CFDA was on her 43 birthday. At the end of it, all the board members sang her “happy birthday,” among them were Ralph Lauren, Oscar de la Renta, and Donna Karan.
  • She was a consulting producer for The Fashion Show and the reality television series ReModeled.
  • In 2012 she made her theatre stage debut in the Off-Broadway production Love, Loss, and What I Wore by Nora & Delia Ephron.
  • She never got married.
  • Her favorite vacation place is St. Barts.

Awards

  • The Fashion Maverick Award from the American Apparel and Footwear Association
  • Fashion Legacy Award from the Fashion Chamber of Commerce State of Style Awards
  • Lifetime Achievement Award from Pratt Institute (2012)
  • Leadership Award from the Fashion Center BID
  • Fashion Institute of Technology President’s Lifetime Achievement Award, (2013)
  • Inducted into the Business of Fashion 500 Hall of Fame (2014)

We hope you enjoyed this article.
Please support us so we can publish more herstories about pioneer women.
Donate

We hope you enjoyed this article.
Please support us so we can publish more herstories about pioneer women.
Donate

Watch and Learn More



Visit Her Landmark

Fashion Culture | Fashion Lives: Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis

Fern Mallis, creator of New York Fashion Week, introduces her new book, Fashion Lives: Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis. The book offers 19 interviews with American fashion luminaries--such as Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs, and Tom Ford--from Mallis's ongoing series of conversations at New York's prestigious 92nd Y.

This event was held March 1, 2016 at The Museum at FIT, NYC.

#FashionCulture
#MuseumatFIT

http://www.fitnyc.edu/museum/events/
Share:

This post is also available in: Español

Category: Fashion & Beauty
Tags: Designer, Editor, and NYC Women

Hidden

Next Steps: Sync an Email Add-On

To get the most out of your form, we suggest that you sync this form with an email add-on. To learn more about your email add-on options, visit the following page (https://www.gravityforms.com/the-8-best-email-plugins-for-wordpress-in-2020/). Important: Delete this tip before you publish the form.
Check out this fun, inspiring, and challenging activity about extraordinary women.
You'll also be subscribing to our monthly newsletter. Unsubscribe anytime.

Shop & Support


Donate & Support
 
Our feminist project of wanderlust and equality-aspired community maps the HerStories of worldwide wonder women.
Explore the website for excellent guided tours, travel tips, unique landmarks, fun girlfriend getaways, events, and in-depth articles about gender, equality, space, and (not-told-enough) female legacy.

About the Project

 

Subscribe to
our Newsletter

Abby-Aldrich-Rockefeller-WWP
Arts

Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, 1874-1948

A socialite and philanthropist. The co-founder of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and its biggest donor.

Abigail Aldrich Rockefeller was born in Providence, Rhode Island. Her father was a Republican senator, and she grew up traveling back and forth between Rhode Island and Washington, DC. She was educated by a Quaker governess till she was 17 years old, and then attended Miss Abbott’s School for Young Ladies in Providence. During her upbringing, she was introduced to socialite and political circles, and at 19 years old, she made her official social debut. The following year, she embarked on an extensive European tour, where she visited many museums and art galleries and began to sharpen her skills as an art collector. At 20 years old, she met John Davison Rockefeller Jr., the son of the businessman and philanthropist John Davison Rockefeller Sr. After five years of courtship, the couple married at a big society wedding. The young Rockefellers settled in NYC, first in 13 W. 54th Street in Manhattan and later in 10 W. 54th Street. Rockefeller was a philanthropist in the heart, and she devoted herself to various charities. She donated money to the girl scouts, chaired the Auxiliary 336 of the American Red Cross, was a member of the Young Women’s Christian Association National Board, and served as chairman of different committees of the organization. In 1918, Rockefeller was chosen to chair the Housing Committee of the War Work Council, in which she worked for the improvement of living conditions for working women. She later applied the concept to the employees of Standard Oil – her husband’s family firm, purchasing land and building homes for the workers as well as a Community Center that included a clinic, nursery school, gym, and even a bowling alley. In 1925, Rockefeller revived her love for art and began collecting paintings and drawings mainly of contemporary American artists as well as European modernists such as Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Within a few years, she converted part of the room in her 7th floor Manhattan apartment into a gallery, where visitors could view the art on display. In 1929, alongside Lillie P. Bliss, Mary Quinn Sullivan, she co-founded the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in NYC – the first museum in the US devoted entirely to the modern movement. Rockefeller held several positions in the museum management team, from treasurer to Vice-President and Vice-Chairman, as well as served in its committees. She pushed for establishing the museum’s film library and for the War Veterans’ Art Center – a rehabilitation program for WW2 veterans through art. Rockefeller’s dedication to art expanded outside of MoMA; she donated art pieces to other institutes, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Met Cloisters, the Rhode Island School of Design, and the Ludwell-Paradise House at Colonial Williamsburg. She passed away after suffering a heart attack at the age of 73. Share:This post is also available in: Español Read more...
Ada Louise Huxtable WWP
Arts

Ada Louise Huxtable, 1921-2013

An architecture critic and a writer. Received the first-ever Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.

Born Ada Louise Landman in NYC, an only child in a middle-class Jewish family. Growing up in Manhattan, Huxtable loved strolling along the streets, fascinated by its building, such as the Grand Central Terminal, the Metropolitan Museum, and the Museum of Natural History. She studied art at Hunter College, graduating magna cum laude, and then architectural history at NYU Institute of Fine Arts. At the time, she worked in Bloomingdale’s furnishings department, where she met her soon-to-be husband, Garth Huxtable. In 1946, at 25, Huxtable landed a job as an assistant curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art. After five years, she left her job to study Italian architecture in Italy for a year. Upon her return, she began writing as a contributing editor for various art and architectural journals. At the age of 37, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship, in which she examined the structural and design advances of American architecture. In 1963, 42 years old Huxtable was hired as the first architecture critic at The New York Times, a position she held for almost 20 years. In her column, she wrote about new and old buildings, threatened buildings, and bad-designed buildings. She also mentioned emerging architects, architectural trends, movements, and exhibitions. Huxtable encouraged the everyday readers to look at buildings from a new perspective, not as an assembly of bricks and pilasters but as a public statement with history and meaning. Raising awareness of the city’s heritage, the urban environment, and civic engagement, she set the tone for modern architecture criticism, for which, at the age of 49, she was the first-ever to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. In 1981, at the age of 60, Huxtable received a MacArthur grant that allowed her in-depth research on subjects she was interested in, such as the development of the skyscraper, the negative impact of postmodernism building, and preservation vs. modernity. At 76, she returned to writing for the public as an architecture critic for The Wall Street Journal, publishing columns for the next 15 years. Throughout her career, Huxtable was involved in various committees, serving as a fellow at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Architectural Selection and Building Design Committees for the Getty Center, Getty Villa, and as a Jury member for The Pritzker Architecture Prize. She published more than 10 books on architecture, including “Kicked a Building Lately?,” “Goodbye History,” “Hello Hamburger,” and a biography of Frank Lloyd Wright. Huxtable died in NYC at 91. Share:This post is also available in: Español Read more...
Adena Friedman WWP
Economics & Finance

Adena Friedman, 1969

A businesswoman, the president and CEO of Nasdaq, the first woman in this position and to lead a global exchange.

Born Adena Robinson Testa in Baltimore, Maryland. She earned her BA in political science from Williams College in Massachusetts and an MBA from Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management. In 1993, at the age of 24, she married Michael Cameron Friedman. In that same year, she joined Nasdaq as an intern and soon began moving up. In her first 18 years at Nasdaq, Friedman served in various positions, such as marketing manager, head of data products, head of corporate strategy, and Chief Financial Officer. In 2011, at 42, Friedman left Nasdaq to join Carlyle Group, a private investment firm in Washington DC. There, she served as Chief Financial Officer and Managing Director. After three years, she returned to Nasdaq as president and Chief Operating Officer. In 2017, in addition to her role as president, 48 years old Freidman was appointed CEO of the Nasdaq. The first woman in this position and the first woman to lead a global exchange. She oversees the company’s business segments, focusing on efficiency, product development, expansion, and growth. Under her leadership, Nasdaq transformed into a leading global exchange and technology solutions company, operating across six continents. In addition to her work in Nasdaq, Freidman is also a member of several boards. Among them are – the board of directors at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the board of FCLTGlobal – a non-profit organization that works on ways to encourage long-term investing, and the board of Greater Washington, DC. A Chapter of Junior Achievement – a non-profit organization that supports teens in their way to financial independence. Freidman often speaks about women in leadership positions, advocating for mentoring and creating career opportunities for women in the financial industry. Share:This post is also available in: Español Read more...
Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez-WWP
Politics & Leaders

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 1989

Democratic Socialist politician, the youngest woman ever to serve in the United States Congress.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was born in the Bronx borough of NYC to a Puerto Rican family. Her political tendencies were recognized from a young age, and in high school, she participated in the National Hispanic Institute’s Lorenzo de Zavala Youth Legislative Session and later served as its Secretary of State. She attended Boston University, graduating cum laude with a BA degree in international relations and economics. While studying in college, she was an intern in Senator Ted Kennedy’s section of foreign affairs and immigration issues. As the only Spanish speaker in the office, she was the one to assist the families who were separated by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). After college, Ocasio-Cortez returned to the Bronx and worked at the nonprofit National Hispanic Institute, as well as a community organizer, a waitress, and a bartender, helping her mother with fighting a Foreclosure on their home. In 2016, she was a volunteered organizer at Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign. She became active with the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, traveling across the country speaking to the communities that have been affected by the change of drinking water in the area. The encounter with the local activists inspired her to work for her community. Not long after, she received a call from Brand New Congress, recruiting her as a progressive candidate for the congressional district election. In April 2018, still working as a waitress, Ocasio-Cortez launched her primary campaign for NYC’s 14th congressional district election – the first person in 14 years to challenge Joe Crowley’s seat in US congress. Under the slogan “The Courage to Change,” she organized an all-volunteer grassroots campaign and did not take corporate donations. With a strong social media presence, she defeated her opponent by almost 15%, becoming the youngest woman ever to serve in the US Congress. Arriving at the House of Representatives with millions of followers on social media, Ocasio-Cortez was appointed by her colleagues to give them social media lessons. In congress, she runs on a progressive platform. She is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and a loud advocate for social policies, such as abolishing ICE, universal healthcare, gun control, cancellation of student debt, tuition-free public college and trade school, criminal justice reform, and ending the privatization of prisons. She is also promoting climate policies, and together with Senator Ed Markey, she introduced the “Green New Deal” – a plan to switch to renewable energy sources for the entire country to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Share:This post is also available in: Español Read more...
View all

 

*Disclaimer: Please be aware that the information on this page is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. Learn more here.