.FernMallis was instrumental in helping to create what is now commonly known as New York Fashion Week. Here, she talks about her time at the CFDA, Bryant Park tents and more.
After a 10-year run with IMG, Mallis went on to create her own “Fashion Icons” talk series at 92Y with designers and fashion types, and has published two books culled from those interviews.After reading in WWD that the CFDA’s then-president Carolyne Roehm had resigned and executive director Robert Isabell’s contract had not been renewed, Mallis’ interest was piqued.
Upgrading the public’s perception of the 200-member CFDA was a priority. For starters, Mallis tapped Pentagram’s Michael Bierut to redesign its logo and she took a pay cut to hire an assistant to answer the CFDA’s phone, among other things. In the year prior, volunteers would periodically drop into the CFDA office to take down any messages that had been left on the answering machine.
The search began in 1991 and Bryant Park became the choice due partially to Herman, who had seen the park’s transformation from his West 40th Street office and was part of the park’s restoration committee. He also had a good relationship with Bryant Park Corp. founder Dan Biederman. The park was not the finely landscaped year round attraction that it is now. The park was still shaking off its image for being littered with syringe needles and ridden with rats.
Along with the General Motors-supported designer “Concept Cure” cars, the Fashion Targets Breast Cancer initiative was another favorite project. Chaired by Ralph Lauren, the FTCB inaugural monthlong effort bowed in 1994 with a special T-shirt. The design was overseen by the Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. and sold to stores to benefit the Nina Hyde Center for Breast Cancer Research.
To accommodate menswear designers and accessories designers, a men’s week was later started and accessories exhibitions were held in the space that is now the Bryant Park Hotel on West 40th Street to tie into NYFW. Accessories were later showcased within Bryant Park, which took some wrangling with city officials to get the rights to do so. “That changed the footprint of fashion week for sure,” Mallis said. “There was a season where we got thrown out of Bryant Park and we moved to Chelsea Piers.
After a show season at Pier 59 was unpopular , Nicole Miller’s chief executive officer Bud Konheim later approached his friend, then-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, to urge him to allow a return to Bryant Park with a larger, more visible and cohesive footprint. Over time, though, some CFDA members complained that the tents were costing a lot of money and taking a lot of the CFDA leadership’s time, Mallis said.
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