On Monday, November 3rd, I attended a lecture by fashion historian and author Natalie Nudell entitled “Schmatte Week VS Rosh Hashanah”. The title referenced a 2006 New York Magazine article detailing a scandal that rippled through the fashion industry that year: New York Fashion Week scheduled during the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. Given the large number of Jewish fashion designers, editors, and models integral to Fashion Week, placing it during Rosh Hashanah sparked controversy. The debate goes beyond this: Why does the coincidence of Fashion Week and Rosh Hashanah matter beyond logistics? Is there a greater intersection of fashion and Judaism?
During her talk, Nudell, a professor, scholar, and historian specializing in 20th-century American fashion, answered these questions. She explained a concept I had never heard of: the Fashion Calendar.
The Fashion Calendar was produced from 1941 to 2014 by renowned fashion connoisseur Ruth Finley, alongside newspaper columnist and foreign correspondent Alice Hughes and fashion advertiser and journalist Frances Hughes. The Calendar listed “all New York and domestic fashion and creative industry events.” The publication also included religious holiday calendars so that subscribers could plan around their personal obligations to “maximize attendance” for events.
The Fashion Calendar was, as Nudell phrased in her lecture, “an instrument of community”, uniting Americans through accessible live fashion. Promoting events from every branch of the industry, the calendar evolved into the official schedule for New York Fashion week. When Finley retired in 2014, the Fashion Calendar was adopted by the Council of Fashion Designers of America.
Through their Fashion Calendar, Finley and the Hughes sisters had a remarkable impact on American fashion. But beyond that, there is a lesser-known and underappreciated Jewish history behind the three women. Finley (born Finberg) was born in Massachusetts to Jewish immigrants from Vilna, Lithuania. In 1903, her family moved from Vilna to Massachusetts and then later New York.
Alice and Frances were also born into an immigrant Eastern European Jewish family. While all three were successful in the New York advertisement, journalism, and fashion industries, their Jewish identities were rarely mentioned. Nudell did not definitively state the reason for the concealment of their Judaism, but offered a few potential explanations: the increasing antisemitism of the time, or the intergenerational trauma and push for assimilation that came with immigration.
Despite Finley and the Hughes sisters' public omission of their Judaism, their Fashion Calendar quietly reflected it. The publication consistently listed Jewish holidays and events, accommodating the large portion of Jewish immigrant fashion labourers. Additionally, the Fashion Calendar was associated with many Jewish organizations and charities; the American Jewish Committee's annual Fashion Ball was advertised, as were benefits for organizations like the National Jewish Hospital. When the Fashion Calendar overlapped with Jewish holidays, it made the news – how could Fashion Week (or, Jewishly, Schmatte week) conflict with Rosh Hashanah?
Nudell’s research on Ruth Finley and the Hughes sisters’ Fashion Calendar illuminates the often overlooked importance of Jews to the American fashion industry. At the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, Nudell has digitized and organized thousands of Fashion Calendar archives, wherein lie thousands of records of events displayed and organized by Jewish (and non-Jewish) artists and designers. Her database aims to preserve the history of the Fashion Calendar and the brilliant women who pioneered it.
The Calendar represents the impact of Judaism in the American fashion industry, illustrating the inseparability of Jewish artists and workers from the industry at large. Listening to Nudell’s lecture about this fascinating history reminded me that creativity and Judaism have long been, and will remain, connected.
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