the beginning.

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1943. This is the year of the first New York City fashion week--or Press Week, as it is originally known. This highly anticipated week of models strutting haute couture and upcoming trends down the catwalk began with Eleanor Lambert, a fashion publicist.

During the early 1900s, Paris was the center of the world of fashion. Before World War II, American designers found inspiration within the style of the French. However, when the Germans occupied France in 1940, those accustomed to traveling across the Atlantic Ocean for Paris fashion week had to find their inspirations elsewhere. Designers were free to create collections without the added pressure of the French.

Previously obsessed with Paris couture, Vogue and Harper's Bazaar began featuring American designers after Lambert presented the American sector of fashion. More importantly, these designers were given credit for their work and American fashion began to make a name for itself.

Nowadays, models, buyers and editors assemble twice a year in the fashion capitals of the world to drool over forthcoming trends.

However, unlike fashion week, I hope to take you--the reader--back through the eras of fashion in hopes of discovering how our style came to be. After all, fashion is what you adopt when you don't know who you are.