Fashion historian John Tiffany on Eleanor Lambert and The Coty Awards

In the past, fashion industry awards such as the Neiman Marcus Fashion Awards(1938-1995) and the Coty American Fashion Critics’ Awards (1943-1984) garnered as much interest as any of our present-day red-carpet rundowns.

The Coty Awards, in particular, were considered on-par with the Oscars and the Tonys in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, and were given to American fashion designers for the excellence of their work. Award show attendees included heads-of-state, Hollywood stars, and industry power-players. Pictures of the award shows were splashed across the pages of mainstream newspapers and winners were interviewed on television by the likes of Dinah Shore. A winning designer or manufacturer was assured that he or she would benefit from the acclaim financially.

Bonnie Cashin and Charles James at the Coty Awards, 1950

A Charles James gown at the Coty Awards, 1954

I sat down a few weeks ago with fashion history expert John Tiffany, to discuss the origins of the Coty American Fashion Critics’ Awards, American fashion’s most prestigious awards, also known simply as the Coty Awards. Tiffany is currently working on a book and a documentary about his former boss and mentor, legendary publicist Eleanor Lambert.

Tiffany explained that, in the late 1930s, dress manufacturers, retailers and the garment worker unions began to worry about the looming threat of world war. If the U.S. did go to war, the apparel workers were sure they would be required to halt production of fashion garments, and to begin producing military supplies like uniforms and blankets. To their surprise, the industry was spared; and quite to the contrary, was championed.

In 1940, at the beginning of WWII, the Paris fashion houses had closed, and government officials and manufacturers saw the chance to position New York as a fashion capital on the international stage.  Hundreds of dress manufacturers in New York City joined forces with the International Ladies Garment Union for the first time to form the New York Dress Institute, which was later called the Couture Group. A New York Creation label was put in the majority of dresses produced in NYC to boost patriotism, and a tax was put on NYC manufacturers to yield dollars for the NYDI’s promotional campaign.

New York Creation label, via Couture Allure

The NYDI hired advertising agency J. Walter Thompson, whose ad, Vanity Fair scribe Amy Fine Collins wrote,

“showed a soignée Martha Washington ministering to dying soldiers at Valley Forge. In spite of the looming war, dress sales soared. But Dorothy Shaver of Lord & Taylor, Adam Gimbel of Saks Fifth Avenue, Andrew Goodman of Bergdorf Goodman, and Henri Bendel of the eponymous store were appalled. They demanded that the New York Dress Institute switch to more tasteful tactics, and they insisted on publicity sorceress Eleanor Lambert for the job.” (Vanity Fair, April 2004)

Lambert, at that time, represented all of the major department stores, but had not yet reached the height of  authority and success she would soon be known for. Tiffany, her biographer, made note of the later highlights of Lambert’s 70-year career in fashion: she was known as the founder of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum, of New York Fashion Week, of the International Best Dressed List and of the Coty Awards. Lambert represented a great number of influential American designers such as Claire McCardell, Pauline Trigere, Mainbocher, Norman Norrell, Halston and Calvin Klein.

Miss Lambert

When the NYDI hired Lambert, she swiftly and shrewdly suggested that the campaign be based on designers, not manufacturers. At that time, manufacturers, and not the designers who worked under them, were the face of apparel companies. Lambert knew she could create a cult of personality around these designers, much like the excitement that had surrounded their Parisian counterparts. She implemented her strategy in three ways. She began by re-interpreting Parisian designer Mainbocher’s defunct 10 Best-Dressed Women list, and renamed the U.S. version the International Best Dressed List. High society, Hollywood and designers soon vied to be named to the list. The Coty Awards were her next creation, in 1942, and we’ll get to that in a moment. Lastly, Lambert founded NY Press Week in 1943. She convinced NY fashion editors as well as out-of-town press to cover the 55 American designers who showed that year. Her primary mission was to convince Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar that American fashion was just as important as Parisian fashion, if not more.

1948 Fashion Show

Coty, Inc. a major U.S. fragrance house, became interested in the NYDI’s efforts to support American fashion. The Coty American Fashion Critics’ Awards were sponsored by Coty and organized by Lambert.  The show had a runway component and an awards ceremony. The first winner was Norman Norrell, one of Lambert’s clients.  Designers who saw the positive effect of winning a Winnie (the Coty Women’s fashion award) petitioned Lambert to take them on as her clients and to help them win an award. Tiffany mentioned that Lambert only worked with designers she believed in, and maintained that philosophy until she passed away.

The Coty Awards ran until 1984, but began to lose importance around 1979. Tiffany let me in on the truth behind the collapse. It’s widely believed that designers began to feel that they would not be nominated or awarded if they did not have a fragrance deal with Coty, or if they had deals with other fragrance companies. In reality, Tiffany explained, the Coty Awards likely suffered due to a rift between Miss Lambert and her then client, Calvin Klein. Because Lambert refused to grant Klein full control of his brand’s image at the awards, the designer made public his plan to decline any future Coty Awards (he had already won several). Halston, his competitor, went one step further by going to the press with his reasons for planning to refuse an award. Halston cited Coty’s over-commercialization of the  show as his rationale for distancing himself from the awards. Coty had recently created a rather tasteless ‘Coty Awards Makeup Kit’ that capitalized on the show’s popularity, but undermined its nominees’ more high-brow reputations.

Halston and Pat Cleveland at the Coty Awards, 1972

Miss Lambert had founded the CFDA in 1962 but the CFDA awards were not created until 1980, upon CFDA president Bill Blass’ suggestion. Lambert left Coty to orchestrate the new industry awards, which were free of sponsorship or commercial affiliation.

Eleanor Lambert’s legacy is clear and powerful.  The CFDA itself remains hugely influential, and the CFDA Awards continue to positively affect winning designers’ businesses.  Miss Lambert helped to elevate fashion designers to celebrities in their own right, and by doing so, she put American fashion on the map.  By now, however, that intense focus on designers has left interest in the technical end of the industry behind.  Perhaps what we need now are Coty-like awards that celebrate the nuts and bolts of the fashion industry.  Initiatives like Mayor Bloomberg’s NYC Fashion 2020 and Made in Midtown are encouraging developments.

Thank you to John Tiffany for taking me through the chronology of the Coty Awards, and for sharing some of his archival finds. I’m really looking forward to reading his book, and to seeing his documentary, Eleanor Lambert: Empress of Fashion.