EXHIBITION PREVIEW
Inspiring Beauty: 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair. Oct. 19-Jan. 4. $5-$10. Museum of Design Atlanta, 1315 Peachtree St., Atlanta. 404-979-6455. www.museumofdesign.org.
If models parading down the fashion runway seem an unlikely vehicle for social change, imagine a bus full of black models traveling through the segregated South. Picture those models wearing haute couture and strutting across gymnasiums and auditoriums in black communities. Consider the audience member, especially during times of racial strife, feeling her dignity being affirmed.
Created by the late Eunice Johnson, who helped co-found and publish Ebony and Jet magazines, the traveling fashion show and fundraiser brought a sense of pride to African Americans around the country from 1958 through 2009. At its closing, Fashion Fair had toured 180 cities and raised more than $55 million for African-American charities.
“Inspiring Beauty: 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair” tells the story of Johnson’s half-century quest to redefine beauty and style while using high fashion to empower African Americans in an exhibition opening Oct. 19 at the Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA). The installation features 40 garments from Ebony Fashion Fair and Johnson’s personal wardrobe, along with accessories, archival photographs and videos.
“The story of Eunice Johnson and the way she used fashion is an amazing example of design being used to help solve a big social problem,” said Laura Flusche, executive director of MODA. Johnson, she said, understood that how you look matters and that you design how you look on a day-to-day basis to help you define your place in the world.
The exhibition, originally organized by the Chicago History Museum, will occupy two galleries and will include the addition of a timeline to illustrate how fashion intersected with social and cultural events, Flusche said.
A gray wool and twill day coat by Marc Bohan for Christian Dior reflects the mod style of the ’60s, while more recent additions to the Fashion Fair archives include the memorable color-blocked evening dress by Stephen Burrows from 2007. A 1972 Pauline Trigere blue linen day suit shows Johnson’s personal style and penchant for fine tailoring.
Videos in the exhibition help tell Johnson’s story and explain the impact Ebony Fashion Fair had on show attendees. For Johnson, the annual event was not merely a fashion show, it was a vision.
“I really want people to see what a pioneer and visionary my mother was,” said Johnson’s daughter, Linda Johnson Rice, chairwoman of Johnson Publishing Company, which still publishes Ebony and Jet. “It is so important for them to understand it is more than a fashion show and clothes. It is about a woman’s vision of self-esteem, self-importance and self-awareness.”
When Ebony Fashion Fair launched in 1958, American fashion had yet to be defined. The clothing available at exclusive department stores were copies of French couture. Manufacturers and store buyers traveled to Paris to purchase patterns or garments they would then use to replicate the designs. In order to get authentic haute couture, Eunice Johnson had no choice but to join them.
She took first-class flights to Europe where she encountered designers who balked at selling to her despite her generous budget. It was glamorous but lonely work. “You are sitting there and buying very expensive clothes, but you are on your own because there is no one else who looks like you,” said Rice.
Despite the challenges, Johnson began amassing an impressive collection from Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Cardin, Oscar de la Renta, Bill Blass and other popular designers. As Fashion Fair grew more established, it became a launching pad for careers. Many of the black models who gained popularity in the ’60s and ’70s had their start on the Fashion Fair stage. Model Pat Cleveland was a teenager when she joined the tour with her mom as a chaperone and Johnson discovered Richard Roundtree, the actor who would later portray Shaft, in a haberdashery.
A master seamstress with degrees in sewing and tailoring, Johnson would critique nascent black designers, telling them to return when they had mastered certain techniques. In 1973, after watching Fashion Fair models mix and match makeup shades to complement their skin tones, Johnson launched Fashion Fair Cosmetics.
Deborah Riley Draper, a filmmaker and MODA board member, remembers buying new outfits and visiting the hair salon as a young girl before attending the Fashion Fair show in Savannah. “It was an opportunity for us to feel extremely proud and confident and self-assured as black women,” said Draper. “When these beautiful black women took the stage and introduced us to Dior and YSL … they represented progress.”
The show also served as a fundraiser for many charities. The Atlanta Alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority used proceeds from sponsoring the event to fund college scholarships.
"Inspiring Beauty" is a chance for anyone familiar with Ebony Fashion Fair to relive those moments. They can even preserve their memories at special iPad stations in the museum or online at ebonyfashionfairatl.org.
People not familiar with Fashion Fair can also take a valuable lesson from the exhibition, said Flusche. “A lot of times, especially with high fashion, it seems frivolous, difficult to understand or not relevant to our everyday lives,” she said. “When you see this show, you will see that it does matter.”
