Fern Mallis

Fern Mallis (born March 26, 1948) in Brooklyn, New York, was the Executive Director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) from 1991-2001, and created 7th on Sixth productions or New York Fashion Week as it is known today. She was also Senior Vice President of IMG Fashion from 2001 to 2010. She is currently President of her own international fashion and design consultancy, Fern Mallis LLC. Mallis received her BFA from University at Buffalo.

Career

Fern Mallis is credited as the creator of Fashion Week in New York City in 1993, under the auspices of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), where she served as Executive Director for ten years. Known as 7th on Sixth, "the event organized, centralized and modernized the American runways, allowing American designers to compete head-on with Milan and Paris, forever changing the global fashion business." In February 2013 at Lincoln Center during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, Big Shows, a photo-retrospective by photographer Camilo Him, celebrated New York Fashion Week in the 1990s, including Mallis' work. In July 2001 IMG acquired 7th on Sixth, and Mallis became Senior VP of IMG Fashion, leading new Fashion Weeks in Miami, Los Angeles, Berlin, Moscow, and Mumbai, and adding others including Sydney and Melbourne.