Sleepy History - Fashion Week

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

Fashion Week began as exclusive salon shows in Paris and evolved into a global phenomenon that defines style, trends, and creativity across the world. From the haute couture houses of the early 20th century to the front rows of New York, London, Milan, and Paris, discover how Fashion Week became the heartbeat of the fashion industry. Tonight, explore the glamorous and ever-evolving history of Fashion Week, as you gently drift into a peaceful and stylish sleep. Narrated by: Elizabeth Grace Written by: Laila Weir #history #fashion #fashionweek #sleep #bedtime #story About Sleepy History  Explore history's most intriguing stories, people, places, events, and mysteries, delivered in a supremely calming atmosphere. If you struggle to fall asleep and you have a curious mind, Sleepy History is the perfect bedtime companion. Our stories will gently grasp your attention, pulling your mind away from any racing thoughts, making room for the soothing music and calming narration to guide you into a peaceful sleep.  Want to enjoy Sleepy History ad-free? Start your 7-day free trial of Sleepy History Premium: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sleepyhistory.supercast.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Have feedback or an episode request? Let us know at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠slumberstudios.com/contact⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sleepy History is a production of Slumber Studios. To learn more, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.slumberstudios.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Gillets and glamour. Flash bulbs and supermodels. This is what we associate. with fashion week around the globe. From Milan to Paris and New York to London, the sensual world of art and beauty that is high fashion takes over these cities twice a year. But how did the iconic fashion week come to be? Once, name. homeless models were hired to show off clothing behind closed doors.

Now, fashion shows wouldn't be complete without photographers, publicists, and more. So just relax and let your mind drift as we explore the sleepy history of fashion week. We hear about celebrities and the international jet set gathering for this commotion of events that's full of glamour and glitz. We see pictures of the fashion fans who attend in order to see and be seen. In a flurry of sunglasses, paparazzi and bright lights, we absorb images of images of white lights. We absorb images of models in cutting-edge looks that push the boundaries of art and design, forming the frame within which the rest of us dress ourselves every day. So tonight, let's look behind the catwalk and the flashbulbs,

and let's excavate the history of this iconic happening in the world of the world of the catwalks. women's fashion, which takes place in a handful of style capitals around the world twice each year. Inevitably, the story of fashion week is entangled with the history of fashion shows. And while fashion shows have grown into quite an institution these days, they didn't always exist, of course. Naturally, there was a time not so long ago when presentations of clothing styles, worn by models walking down a runway, hadn't yet been conceived. So how exactly did this unique type of event get started?

Fashion, arguably, has been around ever since humans first draped themselves. in animal furs or strings of handmade beads and personal decoration was certainly important to the rich and powerful from Cleopatra to Marie Antoinette and many in between. But having women model clothing designs in live shows for a group of potential clients and media is a very modern invention. The institution of fashion week began less than a hundred years ago, but its origins coincide with the origins of the term Ote Couture in Paris in the 1800s. The widely recognized father of Ote Couture was the designer Charles Frederick Worth, who was active. He was active. He was a in Paris in the mid to late 1800s.

And Wir was also the first fashion creator to begin organizing events twice a year. The cadence still followed by fashion shows to this day. At the time, wealthy women, who coveted the pinnacle of Western fashion, traveled to Paris to purchase their country. clothing. They ordered gowns from the designers they preferred, then had to wait for the garments to be made to their measurements. Worth's idea was to present a collection of designs to his clients

in a group so that they would all come to Paris at the same time and see the latest looks on offer. He had real women wear the clothes. as to show them in motion, and he called the events, salon shows. This all sounds reminiscent of the modern fashion show in some ways, but these salon shows were a far cry from today's fantastical extravaganzas that feature supermodels who are often household names and whose looks make headlines worldwide. Back then, a small group of clients would gather in the designer's studio to see a private showing of the latest collection.

Nameless models would take turns walking around quietly in the different designs, which were each assigned a number. The customers would then use these numbers to always, order the clothes they like. At some point, Parisian clothing stores also entered the world of live modelling of garments. They hired women to wear their clothes in public fashion parades to draw customers. By the time the 1800s came to a close and the 20th century began, Parisian fashion practices were also reaching the United States. And in 1903, a US clothing company called the Ehrlich Brothers

held what is considered the country's first fashion show in New York City. A bit flashier than Charles Frederick Wirth's sedate affairs. The show was apparently quite a success. And soon, designers and department stores around the country were following suit with their own shows. Around the same time, designers in other Western fashion capitals were continuing and building on the tradition of these early salon shows. In London, a designer called Lady Duff Gordon, who went to be a designer called Lady Duff Gordon, who went by the professional name, Lucille, held private shows for clients in the style of Charles Worth. And in Paris, the fashion creator Paul Poire was doing the same, but he decided to turn

the presentations of his collections into major high society events. And so, he began holding extra extravagant balls after his shows. The ball that Poiré put on after his 1911 salon show made a particular splash within fashion history. He called it the Thousand Second Night Party, in reference to the famed Middle Eastern fairy tales, the Thousand and One Nights, also known as the Arabian Knights. In that collection, Praireé showed ornate designs inspired by clothing from the Middle East and the Turkish Ottoman Empire. By the roaring 1920s, fashion or salon shows had become established as a way to present

collections to prospective customers. But they still didn't much resemble today. these fashion extravaganzas. Indeed, many fashion houses in the 1920s actually banned cameras and photographers from their shows. This was because designers were dealing with rivals who sent spies to copy their styles, and they wanted to hamper the efforts of would-be copycats. Imagine a fashion show today taking plays without photographers. It would be inconceivable. That was the reality at that time.

Any existing clients and a few select fashion journalists would be invited to attend. This certainly fueled the exclusive nature of the events, which continued as an element of the allure of high fashion. Despite the rise of fashion shows in New York and elsewhere, Western fashion still very much depended on Paris. However, when World War II erupted and Germany occupied France, the clothing design world had to turn elsewhere. That was when a fashion publicist in the United States,

had the idea to hold an event that she called Press Week. In order to present American designs to the media, the publicist's name was Eleanor Lambert, and she's also remembered as a founder of the world-famous Met Gala. Lambert organized Press Week in 1943, in New York City, at the Plaza Hotel, and she invited, and in fact even paid, reporters to attend. The event was a hit, and legendary magazines like Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, published photos from some of the week's shows. The invention of press week

coincided with the launch of something called the fashion calendar, which was an idea of Eleanor Lambert's public relations assistant. The assistant had heard two journalists trying to decide which to attend of two fashion events that were being held at the same time. This gave her the idea to publish a fashion calendar that could help designers and boutiques organize shows so they didn't conflict with each other. This way, guests could attend all the different shows, one after the other. A side consequence of this was that designers had to work hard to really stand out in the flurry of events.

This no doubt contributed to the increasing extravagant. artistry and theatrical quality of fashion shows over the coming years. Still, even though Press Week and the fashion calendar organised shows during a concentrated period when guests could see all the collections, frustrations remained for journalists attempting to visit them all. That's because the events still to look. took place all over New York, presenting a challenge for guests who had to travel back and forth

from one to the other, an issue that wouldn't be addressed for another couple of decades. At any rate, the event continued to grow in subsequent years, attracting fashion journalists from around the country and even around the world, and soon spawning similar happenings in other cities. That 1943 press week was the start of what would come to be called New York Fashion Week, the world's first Fashion Week, and the origin of all the others. Even though Paris Fashion Week is the most prominent and prestigious, It was New York that launched the concept of a week of fashion shows.

Soon the Second World War ended, and the Paris design world began to recover from occupation and wartime. In this environment, the French fashion designers' union kicked into high gear. The designers' union set up rules for fashion houses that wished to qualify to use the prestigious moniker Ote Couture. Among these rules was a requirement that designers had to present two seasonal collections each year in order to qualify. This solidified the annual calendar of two fashion shows,

one for autumn and winter, and one for spring and summer. That still dry. fashion weeks around the world. Nevertheless, the Paris-Ote-Couture shows, mandated by the Union, were still closer to those 1920s private affairs than to modern runway shows. That is, until 1947. When Christian Dior took the fashion world by storm with a collection that jettisoned wartime looks in favor of hourglass shapes, wide skirts, meters of fabric, and exaggerated femininity. The collection was officially titled Coral, but it immediately became known as the New Look,

a nickname coined by a fashion journalist. Dior's New Look exploded onto a fashion scene hungry for its luxuriant aesthetic. Its success was also fueled in part by the fact that Dior welcomed photographers to the show. Unlike those earlier shows, where designs were jealously guarded, Dior's event hosted large numbers of fashion journalists. These then broadcast his styles to the world, with highly successful results. Soon after the new look and its much photographed impact around the world, it was time for Italy to get into the fashion show business, long known as a source of various luxury fashion goods,

such as Venetian lace or Florentine leather. Italy was primed to join the International Fashion Week movement. In 1951, an Italian named Giovanni Battista Georgini Prisson shows presenting creations by Italian fashion designers at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. Georgini's event drew international media and fashion buyers from major stores including Sacks 5th Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman. The shows were such a success in fact that they tangled up traffic in Florence.

The traffic jam was such a problem that future fashion shows were moved to Milan. That northern Italian city already had many production factories, so it was a convenient place for fashion designers. to set up operations. In 1958, the Italian fashion designers union, a non-profit called the Camera Nacionali della Moda Italiana, or the National Chamber for Italian Fashion, founded Milan Fashion Week.

In the following decades, many Italian brands would increasingly make their mark on the fashion. world, from Prada to Armani and from Versace to Dolce and Gabana. Back in the United States, Eleanor Lambert founded the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1962, a non-profit group, somewhat similar to Europe's fashion designers' unions. Around that time, during the 19th century, with the modern era of international media coverage in full swing. Fashion shows began to exhibit some of the showmanship of today.

Astonishingly, given Paris's enduring position as the world's capital of high fashion and the fame of Paris Fashion Week, the city of Lights didn't hold its own fashion week until the next decade in 1973. But once the happening finally arrived in Paris, it opened with a bang. On the 28th of November, 1973, the city's first ever fashion week kicked off with a huge show that was held at the opulent Palace of Versailles. the once home of Queen Marie Antoinette herself, dubbed the Battle of Versailles, the event showcased five French designers and five American designers in friendly competition. It was in many ways a revolutionary fashion event. It was the first time that French and US designers came together.

And it was also the first. presentation of custom-made oak couture and ready-to-wear fashion side by side the Battle of Versailles show was a fundraiser for the restoration of the historic palace it was organized by the French Fashion Federation and overseen by non-other than Eleanor Lambert the publicist who'd founded the world's very first fashion week in in New York so many years before. The French fashion designers at the Versailles show were Eve Saint-Laure, Emmanuel Ungaro, Pierre Cadam,

Uber de Janeiro, and Mark Borin for Christian Dior. They presented with great fanfare and decadence, complete with a pumpkin carriage at a Cinderella and a caravan led by rhinoceroses. The relatively unknown American designers who presented alongside these French greats were Anne Klein, Holston, Oscar Delerenta, Bill Blas, and Stephen Burrows.

They predominantly used black models in their shows and even featured a visit from the American star Liza Minnelli. Despite the fame and flair of the French designers, the US presenters were largely heralded as the victors of that friendly competition. But either way, Paris Fashion Week was off and running. Over the rest of the 1970s and then the 1980s, the sedate salon shows of yesteryear fully gave way to the over-the-top fashion.

fashion extravaganzas of today, the marvels of the modern fashion week were taking shape in New York, Milan, and Paris. Soon to be joined by London, a variety of fashion folk had held shows in London over the years, harking all the way back to Lady Duff Gordon in the early 1900s. In more recent times, a fashion publicist named Percy Savage held a London show called The New Wave at the city's glamorous Ritz Hotel. But it was in 1983 that the non-profit British Fashion Council formed to promote British design officially began what was designated the first London Fashion Week, the following year, the non-profit launched its designer of the year award. London fashion may have an edgier, grittier image than Parisian fashion's aura of luxury. Indeed, one of the British

capital's first fashion shows was held in a West London parking lot, filled with tents. London's burgeoning fashion show scene was successful enough that the government of the UK committed to providing funding for more shows, and British leaders famously supported it. In 1985, Princess Diana hosted a reception for fashion designers. And in 1986, UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher surprised the world by attending the Fashion Week shows. Then, in the early 1990s,

The birthplace of Fashion Week, New York, sought another step in the consolidation of the organized event. Remember that although fashion shows had been concentrated into a wean and organized not to conflict with one another, the events were still held all over the place. Eventually, the leaders of the Council of Fashion Designers of America decided to bring all the new, York shows together in a single location. The city's Bryant Park. The first Bryant Park show featured iconic US designers, like Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Carolina Herrera, and Donna Karen, who interestingly enough had been

assistant to Anne Klein back when she attended the Battle of Versailles. in Paris. The event also featured the very first supermodels. Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, and Christy Turlington. Fashion Week had truly matured from those days of nameless models wearing numbered designs in quiet studios long ago. The consolidation of New York Fashion week into one location increased its marketing reach. But Paris, on the other hand, took another approach with its own successes. The French capital never concentrated its fashion shows into a central location, while this may have compromised the type of efficiency found at the American event. It facilitated unforgettable spectacles in unique locales.

Take Tieri Mugres' 1984 show at Paris's Zenith Stadium. There, a massive audience of 6,000 people watched a decadent show that ended with a model dressed as the Virgin Mary descending from the ceiling. Or take Carl Lagerfeld's. 2018 transformation of Paris's Grand Palais into a seemingly enchanted forest for Chanel, complete with a runway of fallen knees. Other decadent settings for fashion shows abounded through the years, including recreating villas and a Swiss winter scene staged for Lagerfeld's last show. Today there are many fashion weeks around the

well, but the big four remain New York, Milan, Paris and London. Together they form Fashion Month, which opens in New York, before moving to London, Milan, and finally closing in Paris. Twice a year, once for spring and summer collections, and once for autumn and winter collections. These iconic happenings capture the fashion world and the popular imagination alike with their flights of fancy and artistry. But while Fashion Week has evolved over the years and fashion shows have metamorphosed from Salon show caterpillars into flamboyant-style butterflies. A common thread still runs through the history of high fashion. Today's runway shows may be streamed on social media

and captured in high definition never dreamt of in Charles Words, all Paul Poire's day. But the after parties and opulence on offer during fashion week evoke its history from the extravagant thousand and second night ball of 1911 to the lavish hand-beating that bedecked a worth cature gown. And so perhaps it's proven true once again, that the more things change, the more they remain the same, and the human desire for beauty and brilliance, Artistry and whimsy Elegance and opulence

Lives on Even as styles change and recur As fashions tilt towards the futuristic Or revel in the nostalgia of vintage and retro looks As new artists make their mark And established designers reinvent themselves and through it all we the wearers watch and choose amongst the abundance of options what to put on and what to pass by in order to indulge and express our own unique tastes and sense of style