Eleanor Lambert: Fashion's First Lady

A few weeks ago, I got a text from Sasha Rae, my bestie who lives in Victoria. All it said was "I have a new style icon: Jane Birkin. She's a babe from the 60's. The Birkin bag is named after her. Who's you style icon?". She does this from time to time, suggest an idea for a blog post. Usually her ideas are really great. She also sends me outfit photos of herself when she's proud of a look. She's cute like that.

So, anyways her text got me thinking about who I look to for style inspiration. It was harder than I thought, as I didn't have anyone come to mind immediately. Then, in my PR class we were asked to write a press release on Eleanor Lambert. Having never heard of her until that point (embarrassing now that I know who she is), I had some research to do.

Eleanor Lambert was known as the godmother of fashion PR, having single-handedly making New York City the fashion mecca of the world by taking over the Paris dressmakers’ best-dressed-women poll in 1940 and organizing a biannual Press Week of Seventh Avenue in New York City. Both of these achievements live on today, as Vanity Fair’s International Best Dressed List and New York Fashion Week. Always searching for ways to integrate art with fashion and convince the world that the American garment industry was equal to its international counterparts, Lambert founded both the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Council for Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). 

After learning all of this, I had developed a bona fide girl crush.  This woman was responsible for making the fashion industry what it is today. She often didn't take payment for her services, doing it for, one can only assume, the love of her craft. Eleanor Lambert was an inspiration and force within the fashion industry until the day she died in 2003, at age 100.

While I am inspired by her business savvy more than her personal style, the woman obviously knew how to dress. Known for her turbans and over-sized jewelry, many people called her obscure. I call her brilliant. I respect a woman who knows what she wants and goes for it and that is exactly what Eleanor Lambert did.

j.