In American Fashion

In American Fashion is the first scholarly analysis of the Fashion Calendar, the unique scheduling service and trade publication for the American fashion and creative industries between 1941 and 2014.
Published by Ruth Finley for almost seven decades, the Calendar had an extensive impact on the development of the American fashion industry in the 20th century. Unlike European fashion capitals, the American fashion industry relied on an independent small publisher to manage the schedule of an ever-growing industry. In American Fashion shows how this independent position influenced the democratic approach reflected in the industry in the United States. Finley's unique contribution to the development of the time-system and culture of American fashion made her a key player during the ascendency of American fashion design.
Natalie Nudell unveils the Fashion Calendar as a historical archive, and also looks at its development into an open-source digital humanities project. Through historical analysis and the upcoming digitization of the Ruth Finley Collection, this study unpacks the history and impact of the publication and the women behind it.

Natalie Nudell is Adjunct Assistant Professor in the History of Art Department at the Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY, USA, and the Director and Principal Investigator of the Fashion Calendar Research Database. Nudell wrote and produced the feature documentary Calendar Girl (2020), and is the recipient of the 2026 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Fashion & Culture.

Introduction
Introduction to the Fashion Calendar and Ruth Finley
Methodological and theoretical approach
Chapter descriptions
1. Starting up the Fashion Calendar
Avoiding conflicts to structuring the system
The establishment of the Fashion Calendar and the women behind it
Tactics used to establish authority and realities of women-owned business in the early 20th Century
Trade journals, capitalist commercial structures, time-systems and the formation of the fashion community in New York
2. Diplomacy, Philanthropy & Fashion
The conjunction of PR, politics and fashion in the 20th Century
The establishment of the fashion community in the United States and its key influences
Interconnections of the fashion, popular culture, PR and political communities
The use of fashion shows, events and culture for charitable, political or diplomatic ends
3. Networks of Power
Press Week to New York Fashion Week
Discussion of fashion shows and presentations and their relation to industrial cycles and in relation to the fashion time system and commercial culture
The entrenchment of the fashion system in New York and the ascendancy of American fashion design in the 1970s
The establishment of NYFW, the institutionalization of the Fashion Calendar as the official Calendar of New York Fashion Week
4. Institutionalization of the Fashion Calendar and the End of the Independent Arbiter of the NYFW Schedule
Discussion of the disjointed nature of American fashion institutions and how they overlap i.e. CFDA, IMG
The transition of Fashion Calendar to the official calendar of NYFW and how Finley maintained her independence
The sale of the Fashion Calendar to CFDA and the end of open accessibility of the American fashion schedule
Changes implemented by the CFDA, the numerous transitions that followed the acquisition, the new American Designer Collections Calendar and how it impacts American fashion and NYFW
5. Digitizing the Ruth Finley Collection
Digital Humanities, AI & Critical Cataloging
Description of the project its goals and audience
Description and discussion of the development of the project, challenges faced
Innovative technologies used, such as AI modelling and Machine learning
Our use of "critical cataloguing" to inform how we approach metadata creation and diversity and inclusion
Conclusion
Summary of the theoretical and methodological approach
Call to action for researchers, scholars and the public to use the Fashion Calendar Research Database for their own research or to learn about archives and digital humanities
Bibliography
Index