In 1999, the Fashion Center BID brought together a distinguished group of fashion editors, retailers, historians and museum curators to create the Fashion Walk of Fame, the first and only permanent landmark that pays tribute to American fashion.
The fashion industry had long discussed such an idea, but it took FCBID leadership to bring this important project to life.
Over three years, from 1999 to 2002, the Fashion Walk of Fame Selections Committee met to develop annual lists of nominees.
Criteria for nominations were American designers who: • have had a clear and significant New York presence; • owned their own businesses for at least 10 years; and • were moving forces in the fashion industry, having made a powerful impact on fashion through either innovative design or the use of materials, or significantly influenced the way America dresses.
The names of several dozen nominees were included on ballots that were distributed to a group of industry leaders, who cast their votes to determine eight designers who would be inducted each year.
Over the course of the three year project, 24 designers received this honor, 12 of them posthumously. This year only one living and one deceased designer will be chosen.
Each recipient was honored with a commemorative plaque that has been embedded into the sidewalk down Seventh "Fashion" Avenue, in the heart of America's Fashion District.
Each plaque is 2 1/2 feet in diameter, made of white bronze set in granite, and contains an original fashion sketch and signature of the designer, as well as text describing his/her contribution to fashion.
marketing@alchempro.com
