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1950s-1970s

When Fashion Week was...Press Week?

The Fashion Week before Fashion Week

Jan. 3, 1958

This white lace short evening dress and matching coat was one of the late Christian Dior’s creations designed before his death in fall 1957. The evening dress was among those at the national press week showings in New York which featured fashions for spring 1958. Dior called this collection, designed for the American market, The “New Era."

IMAGE: AP PHOTO

Paris, London, Milan, Berlin — Fashion Week is a central fixture in any major city of style, but the original was and is New York.

New York Fashion Week was born out of something like necessity during World War II, when journeying to Nazi-occupied Paris was an impossibility for the fashion world.

These pictures show New York Fashion Week — then called "Press Week" — during the '50s, '60s and early '70s, several decades before the arrival of the iconographic white tents of Bryant Park and now Lincoln Center.

July 2, 1962

This ball gown by Roxanne of Samuel Winston was an eye-opener at the show, opening the New York Couture Group's semi-annual fashion press week. The pink, rose and silver-printed brocade is cut low in front. A rhinestone pinned to the sash bow in front adds more glitter.

IMAGE: AP PHOTO

And, after all, what is a fashion? From the artistic point of view, it is usually a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.

OSCAR WILDE, "PERSONAL IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA", SEPTEMBER 1883.

July 2, 1962

The sleeveless “nothing” sheath, a favorite with Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy, becomes something dazzling all over in gold beads with extra ribbons of gold beads around arm openings, arms and hemline. The cocktail dress was part of designer Larry Aldrich’s fall collection shown at one of the New York Couture Group’s semi-annual press week shows.

IMAGE: AP PHOTO

Jul. 3, 1962

This double-breasted white wool coat by Originala features subtle shaping, a wide notched collar and fuller than usual sleeves. The costume, topped off by the white mink Cossack’s hat by Lilly Dache, was shown to fashion writers at the week-long parade of fall fashions sponsored by the New York Couture Group.

IMAGE: AP PHOTO

1964

Dramatic or pretty, bare or covered-up, after-dark fashions for fall give women a chance to put their best looks forward. New trends and new versions of holdover themes are being previewed in New York on July 8, 1964, where more than 200 fashion writers are seeing fall fashions in the New York Couture Group’s semi-annual Press Week showings. Among the ideas which pop up insistently are the one-shoulder dress, the deep plunge or wide bare décolletage, pants for at-home wear or, in some collections, to going out, and everywhere, the discotheque dress, usually black but sometimes bright. A huge black satin bow accents the one-shoulder theme in a black wool evening dress by Donald Brooks in his fall collection for Townley.

IMAGE: AP PHOTO

June 26, 1964

A model poses in a design by Anne Fogarty at a press preview fall fashion show in New York City. The slim, sleeveless white wool dress with a high waist is emphasized by a satin pull-through bow. The bulky cape coat is raccoon. The week-long program is sponsored by about 40 American fashion houses.

IMAGE: AP PHOTO

June 27, 1964

Anne Fogarty's discotheque dress, a sleeveless bias cut with a flirty skirt flounce, is shown in New York City for Fashion Week, which begins tomorrow. The knee-length dress has a back bow and is worn with gloves, a brooch and a big puff muff reminiscent of the 1930s.

IMAGE: AP PHOTO

July 8, 1964

A fashion model poses in front of the Regency Hotel in New York City. She is wearing a red and green wool plaid A-line coat, which was modeled for the Carnegie Fashion House at the New York Couture Group's press week fashion show.

IMAGE: AP PHOTO

Jan. 3, 1965

The wide skirt made a comeback with this red, white and blue silk printed dress with white linen jacket, designed by Bill Blass of Maurice Rentner. It was modeled for more than 200 fashion writers for the New York Couture Group's semi-annual press week activities.

IMAGE: AP PHOTO

Jan. 8, 1970

The total look for spring means head-to-toe fashion togetherness. This red and white checked Adolpho ensemble calls for the chiaroscuro look in makeup with subtle shadings of color moving from dark to light. It was one of six moods for the coming season, presented by Coty Originals in New York during the New York Couture Business Council’s National Press Week.

IMAGE: AP PHOTO

Jan. 15, 1970

The “flower face” is one look from Coty shown in New York City, to be presented at the New York Couture Business Council’s 54th National Press Week, which begins on Sunday. More than 40 manufactures will show the coming season’s fashions.

IMAGE: AP PHOTO/LEDERHANDLER