Fern Mallis, known as the godmother of American fashion, can still recall the pivotal moment that helped shape her career and pave a path for tremendous success.
It was 1991, and she was about to begin her role as the executive director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA).
A spring fashion show for designer Michael Kors was being held in a typical New York City loft. When the music began to blare, the speakers reverberated, the room shook and chunks of plaster began falling from the ceiling, hitting supermodels as they strutted down the runway.
The International Herald Tribune declared: “We live for fashion; we don’t want to die for it,” Mallis recalled.
“No one remembers what the collection was,” Mallis told Kent State Today, “But they still remember the ceiling caving in.”
“For me, that was the shot heard round the world for fashion,” she said, noting how she viewed the calamity as her marching orders in her new role.
She took up the mantle of creating an organized, cohesive Fashion Week in New York’s Bryant Park that debuted in 1993 and continued for the next 20 years.
By creating a single event, the costs could be shared among the designers, resulting in considerable savings. Beyond the cost, though, Mallis said the strategy elevated all of American fashion by presenting it en masse for the foreign press and, more importantly, buyers and foreign retailers.
Earning her title
Her work on Fashion Week over the next 20 years earned Mallis her ‘godmother’ title, which she happily embraces.
An icon in the world of fashion, Mallis will be inducted into Kent State University’s School of Fashion’s Hall of Fame during its upcoming Fashion Week 2026. She will be at Kent State to accept the honor at an induction ceremony during the school’s annual fashion show on May 2, and she will present the Hall of Fame lecture on May 1.
“Fern Mallis is a true industry titan whose vision and leadership have fundamentally shaped American fashion,” said Mourad Krifa, Ph.D., Margaret Clark Morgan Director of the School of Fashion. “From creating New York Fashion Week to her tireless advocacy for emerging talent, her impact is immeasurable. We are honored to welcome her to Kent State to share her insights with our students.”
Mallis is being recognized by the school for her transformative impact on the American fashion industry and her enduring role in shaping what the world now knows as New York Fashion Week.
“Fern’s vision transformed the way American fashion presents itself to the world,” said R. Scott French, a representative of Kent State’s School of Fashion Advisory Board. “Her ability to unite designers, press, sponsors and the city itself into a singular, globally recognized moment changed the trajectory of our industry.”
Under her direction, New York Fashion Week became a cultural institution, elevating American designers to the world stage and establishing New York as a capital of fashion equal to Paris, Milan and London.
Advice for students
Seeing a problem and then stepping up to fix it is part of the advice Mallis hopes to impart to students during her May 1 lecture.
The characteristics needed to succeed, she said, don’t change much over time: keeping an open mind, recognizing problems and the willingness to fix them, attention to detail and common sense.
“It shocks me how many people don’t have common sense,” she said.
Mallis said she was delighted when she learned she was being considered as this year’s hall of fame inductee. She has been to Kent State’s fashion school once before, accompanying designer Randolph Duke, when he received an award about 15 years ago. Mallis said she is looking forward to the visit and meeting with students.
Today’s fashion students, she said, face many challenges.
“We have an economy that is not great, an industry that is at a challenging state with tariffs and everything else going on with the government that is not helping,” she said. “Retail stores are closing, not opening. Saks and Neiman Marcus are closing across the country, and students are facing a world of AI that is impacting how the industry will operate going forward. I feel for them.”
Opportunities abound
But challenges also pose opportunities, Mallis said. “Students will have to work to find their voice and their authenticity so that what they are doing is different and deserves to be seen and heard.”
She advised that all students should strive to work for someone else first to spend time learning the industry and from others. Launching a collection takes time, money and backing, and new designers need to build a community where they can grow and find mentors and support.
The upside for the industry these days is that fashion is no longer centered exclusively in New York and Paris.
“It’s no longer imperative to be in New York or Paris to be a designer,” Mallis said, noting how many smaller cities have their own fashion weeks.
“There are lots of regional fashion weeks – Philadelphia, Boston, Nashville, San Antonio, Omaha, Portland, Chicago, LA – you name a city and they have a fashion week,” she said. “Talent is talent; that can happen anywhere.”
Mallis said creative people can fashion their own platforms using only a smartphone. “You can sell from your garage,” she added.
Lifelong success
Mallis once aspired to be a designer but later discovered her passion for the managerial and merchandising side of the business.
After time spent working at Mademoiselle magazine and later as fashion director for the department store Gimbels East, Mallis opened her own public relations firm, focusing on bringing her skills as a problem solver to the industry. That led to her role at the fashion design council and later as a senior vice president of IMG Fashion, the global management company that purchased Fashion Week.
She is currently president of her own international consulting firm and for the past 16 years has hosted the conversation series, “Fashion Icons With Fern Mallis,” in which she interviews fashion notables to find out, “Who are you and how did you become you?’
From the series, she has authored two companion books that chronicle her in-depth interviews with fashion’s most celebrated figures, including Calvin Klein, Vera Wang, Diane von Furstenberg, Valentino, Bob Mackie, and Christian Siriano. A third book is currently in the works.
Success, she has learned, comes to the person with the desire to learn and show up.
“You have to have curiosity. You have to show up and be there in the room where it happens. You can’t always do that sitting at home on your phone or your laptop,” Mallis said. “Show up. Be engaged and be curious. If you want to succeed, pay attention. You want to be indispensable.”
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