Just before everything shut down due to the coronavirus I had the pleasure of visiting the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology to see Eleanor Lambert: Empress of Seventh Avenue, an outstanding exhibition which was curated by students in the graduate division at FIT (my MA is from FIT). The exhibition explored the life/work of the influential woman considered the first fashion publicist in the United States. In additon to clothes by some of the designers she promoted the show was full of archival treasures from the Special Collections division of the Library at FIT. A particularly interesting section of the exhibition focused on Lambert’s advocacy and action for African-Americans in the fashion industry:
“Eleanor Lambert was an avid supporter of black fashion models, designers, and publications. She hired black models for high profile fashion shows such as the 1959 Moscow Exhibition and the 1973 Versailles Fashion Show, which she organized. She selected her client Stephen Burrows as one of the five designers to represent American fashion at Versailles. Lambert wrote about the designer Jon Haggins in 1972 in her syndicated newspaper column, citing him as the “first black fashion designer to make a name on Seventh Avenue.” In 1961, Lambert’s client Pauline Trigère hired model Beverly Valdes, making her the first black Seventh Avenue fit model.”
You can still experience the exhibition at the beautifully produced multi-media website the graduate students created for it: https://exhibitions.fitnyc.edu/eleanor-lambert/