Fashion month is here (again)! The history of fashion week
Image Credit: The Style Historian
New York, London, Milan, Paris – the big four.
Always in that order, always every February and September.
More often than not, fashion circles and the entire concept of runway shows can feel like a mysterious, exclusive and cold experience (Devil Meets Prada anyone?).
With New York Fashion Week officially kicking off this past Friday to showcase spring/summer 2025 collections, I had to wonder – where did the allure of the fashion weeks come from, who started them and what was the purpose? And with the way trends and micro-trends are progressing at an alarming speed, are they even relevant today?
Let’s dig in.
The origins
It all started in Paris, France in 1850, when designer Charles Frederick Worth (known as the founder of haute couture and modeling) invited customers to his atelier to view his most recent work, differentiated by the fact he designed this viewing to be dedicated to a sole collection.
The reason? Mainly, he wanted to find more clients and sell the collection, but Worth also had the brilliant idea of organizing these events twice a year – so his fashion clients could be in town at the exact same time. From there, viewing different collections of garments was born.
At the same time, across the Atlantic in New York City, it is believed that the first fashion show was held in 1903 at a store called Ehrich Brothers – creating so much success that department stores and designers across America were holding their own shows by 1910.
However up until the 1940s, American writers, designers, editors and buyers relied on Paris for fashion inspiration. But with WWII and the Nazi occupation, accessing Paris was no longer available to the Americans.
Enter the PR girl team
But along came fashion publicist icon Eleanor Lambert – who also started the International Best Dressed List and The Met Ball – spotting an opportunity to divert attention from Paris and grow the NYC fashion scene.
Image Credit: The Italian Reve
In 1943, the first ‘New York Press Week’ was held to showcase American designers and focused on press only, with buyers having to schedule separate visits. It took off, quickly gaining notoriety and success. Although born by a different name, the first NYFW was here.
Image Credit: The first New York Press Week, 1943 via Fashion Week Online
An introduction to Milan, Italy
It is alleged that the first ‘fashion week’ (settimana della moda in Italian) was actually hosted in 1951 in Florence, but because of such chaotic traffic and an influx of people travelling to the area (including buyers from American retailers, journalists and photographers for the first time ever), the decision was made to move fashion shows to Milan.
As a result, the National Chamber for Italian Fashion (Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana) organized and hosted the first Milan Fashion Week in 1958.
Image Credit: The First Milan Fashion Week, 1958 via ilquadernodilalu.it
Interestingly, there is debate online suggesting that some of the largest Italian design houses (Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana) at times have ruffled feathers by hosting their own shows independently, as opposed to being part of the official Milan Fashion Week calendar.
While the Milan scene was developing, Lambert continued to push the envelope in the American fashion community, laying a foundation for what would eventually become the big four. In 1962, she founded the Council of Fashion Designers of America, to raise funds for both charity and industry initiatives, furthering American fashion in the world’s economy.
The Battle of Versailles
In 1973, the first fashion week in Paris was organized by the French Fashion Federation (Fédération Française de la Couture) and supervised by NYFW founder Lambert.
Hosted at Versailles Palace, haute couture (high fashion), ready to wear (prêt-à-porter) and menswear collections were brought together for the first time in Paris.
(Couture at this point had been happening in Paris since 1945, when the governing body of couture designers, Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, mandated that they had to present viewings of their collections to the press.)
Although a fundraiser for palace renovations, it was also known to be a competitive showing between American and French designers – with five designers representing each side. It is alleged the Americans won the ‘competition’, by presenting the most avant garde collections.
Image Credit: American models walking during the Battle of Versailles fashion show, 1973 via exhibition.fitnyc.edu
If you’re curious, Team France consisted of Christian Dior, Pierre Cardin, Yves Saint Laurent, Emanuel Ungaro, and Hubert de Givenchy, with Stephen Burrows, Halston, Anne Klein, Oscar de la Renta, and Bill Blass for Team USA.
(I hope you enjoy these ‘team’ photos as much as I enjoyed putting them together - I personally love seeing the faces behind some of the iconic names we know today.)
Image Credit: The Style Historian
Image Credit: The Style Historian
London enters the chat
Last to join the big four was London in 1984, who officially coined the term “Fashion Week”. Organized by the British Fashion Council, who still manages the entire week today, LFW was also the very first of the fashion weeks to live stream for a global audience in 2010.
But back in New York, despite the growth and popularity of fashion shows during the late 80s, shows were happening simultaneously at different locations across the city.
Following the lead of LFW, New York Press Week officially became New York Fashion Week in 1990, and three years later the shows started happening in one event location under white tents at Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan. From there, title sponsorships began – with companies like IMG and Mercedes-Benz cashing in on the infamous events.
But why is this all important?
To the outsider viewer, fashion weeks look like a really fun party (and I’m sure they are) but in reality, it’s an opportunity to study the brand strategy of an est. $1.5 trillion USD industry.
Fashion weeks help reveal the goals and priorities of a brand, plus what trends they think will drive sales throughout the year ahead. This impacts different players across the industry.
From a buyer perspective, they come to see what’s happening in the upcoming season so they can put in orders, where fashion media will use it as a trend forecaster – and to determine what they will feature in their magazines for the next six months.
Then there’s the content angle of it all – through visual storytelling, it’s more than just a collection of clothing. It’s product marketing – both digital and IRL.
I almost like to think of it as an integrated PR campaign come to life – press, product, suppliers, buyers, celebrities and hype – which really comes as no surprise given that a PR girlie founded the entire thing.
With the rise of the social media cycle and consumers wanting to buy very quickly (think TikTok shop, IG stores), fashion week and the industry started pushing ready to wear much more vs its origins of showing a collection that wasn’t even put into production yet.
Much like Andy (Anne Hathaway) being confused as Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) looked down upon her as she explained the importance of handpicked cerulean blue, Miranda Priestly rightly described both the impact of fashion week and the fashion industry as a whole on the average consumer:
“You’re also blithely unaware of the fact that, in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns, and then I think it was Yves Saint Laurent, wasn’t it?… who showed cerulean military jackets. I think we need a jacket here.
And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin.
However, that blue represents millions of dollars of countless jobs, and its sort of comical how you think you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room… from a pile of stuff.”
Until next time,
- TSH xx
As always, thanks for being here – see you next week!
Sources: Wikipedia – Fashion Week, Fashion Week Online, Teen Vogue, Glam Observer, Fashion Network, USA Today, The Italian Reve, Madeinca.ca, Fashion Strategy Weekly