Fern Mallis is one of the most influential people in fashion.
No, she’s not a designer. She’s not a critic. And she’s not the head of a major retailer.
Mallis is instead credited with transforming New York Fashion Week into one of the big four fashion events on the international circuit. During her 10-year tenure as executive director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) she saw a need to organize and centralize American runway shows. That initiative grew into the New York Fashion Week of today.
Alison Abbey and Fern Mallis
Mallis is involved as a mentor and consultant for similar events in burgeoning design markets, including Nashville Fashion Week.
In town to assist with the 2019 event (her fifth year participating in NFW), Mallis sat down with us to talk about the crazy Michael Kors fashion show that inspired her to create New York Fashion Week, Nashville style and, of course, her favorite Music City hotspots.
How did New York Fashion Week come to be?
It’s pretty remarkable what it became and what it’s still becoming because it’s something that is in transition again, but it started back in 1993. I became the director of the CFDA and right before I started there was a market week, which meant 50 fashion shows in 50 locations. Michael Kors had a show in an empty loft space in Chelsea—a raw concrete space which designers love—and when they turned the music on the bass made the ceiling crack and crumble and the plaster was coming down on the runway, on the show, on Cindy [Crawford] and Naomi [Campbell], and it landed in the laps of the fashion critics from The New York Times and others and they wrote the next day, “we live for fashion, we don’t want to die for it,” and I said, “I think my job description just changed.” That was the shot from Sarajevo that started the whole thing.
When did you get involved in Nashville Fashion Week and how have you seen it grow?
I met [co-founder] Marcia [Masulla] in St. Louis, where I was doing St. Louis Fashion Week and she’s from St. Louis. She invited me to Nashville Fashion Week and I said I would love to go to Nashville because it’s such a cool city. [Since then] I’ve seen the talent get stronger. Back then we would do the show around town, and now it’s based at Oz Arts, where it’s very beautifully presented with professional lighting and sound and hair and makeup. And I’m so proud of them for presenting sustainable fashion because there’s no more important issue to address in any industry—especially fashion.
Alison Abbey and Fern Mallis
How would you describe Nashville style?
Nashville is a more casual city, which is not a bad thing because the world has become more casual, but at night when there’s events and things people get dressed up. They care about getting dressed up.
What are some of your favorite places in Nashville?
Well having just come from Hattie B’s, I feel like I’m not in Nashville if I don’t have some good hot chicken. I love walking in 12 South and the various shops there—Imogene + Willie and places like that. I love seeing all that.
You can check out our full interview with Fern Mallis in the video below: