For 50 years, the Ebony Fashion Fair fashion showcase was a staple in black communities around the country. The event – the only traveling fashion show to feature black models and often black designers – was discontinued in 2009 for economic reasons, but the high-end fashions that graced stages from Atlanta to London, live on in the personal vault of show producer and creator, the late Eunice W. Johnson.
In celebration of Black History Month, Macy's has launched a 10-city fashion retrospective of couture designs from Johnson's vault that once appeared on the runway. The exhibit, on display for four days at Macy's Lenox Square, features 10 to 30 signature looks from designers such as Yves Saint Laurent, Carolina Herrera, Lanvin and Pierre Cardin.
Johnson, wife of the late John H. Johnson, founder and publisher of Ebony and Jet Magazines, was known for her impeccable style. The native of Selma, Ala., held degrees in sociology and art and worked as a social worker, until she quit her job to help her husband launch the magazine that would become the preeminent authority on black life and issues.
Johnson served as secretary and treasurer for the publishing company, but she made her mark as the visionary behind Ebony Fashion Fair. It began as a single charity benefit in 1958 and transformed into the traveling show that would serve as a fundraiser for charitable organizations nationwide.
For many attendees, Ebony Fashion Fair, which first came to Atlanta in 1960, was their only exposure to fashion on a global scale. It was also a social event, with the audience almost as decked out in their finest garb as the models on the catwalk.
Each season, Johnson would travel to fashion shows in New York, Milan and Paris to purchase clothing. In the early years, some designers bristled at selling to blacks, but Johnson soon became known as a major buyer. As Ebony Fashion Fair grew, Johnson would spend a million dollars on the 200 outfits featured on the runway.
She gained entry into the most esteemed art, culture and fashion circles around the world, hobnobbing with luminaries such as Pablo Picasso and Yves Saint Laurent. In a 2006 interview with Lynn Norment, Johnson recalled a time when designer Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel visited the Johnson's Chicago home and offered to donate an outfit to the show.
Ebony Fashion Fair models were plucked straight off of the New York runways. The few black models back then were happy for the opportunity to walk in the show and get editorial work in the magazine, Johnson has said. When they had trouble finding make-up shades for the models to wear, Johnson created Ebony Fashion Fair Cosmetics. Not only was the show a showcase for black models, it was also a moment in the spotlight for a number of black designers such as Stephen Burrows, Willi Smith and more recently Kevan Hall.
"It gave us great pleasure that we had a vehicle that not only was able to entertain people," Johnson said in the taped interview with Norment, "but that it was a way of giving jobs for young blacks who had great talent."
Event Preview
For The Love of Color -- A retrospective fashion exhibit honoring Eunice W. Johnson
Thursday through Monday. Free. Macy's at Lenox Square, second level. 3393 Peachtree Road N.E. Information is posted online.
