Eleanor Lambert Berkson (August 10, 1903 – October 7, 2003)

Background

Born in Crawfordsville Indiana. She attended the John Herron School of Art and the Chicago Art Institute to study Fashion. She started at an advertising agency in Manhattan New York, dealing mostly with artists and art galleries. In the mid 1930’s she was the First Press Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art

Whitney Museum of American Art

The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...

 and helped with the founding of the Museum of Modern Art

Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...

. She was married twice, firstly to Wills Conner, which ended in divorce and secondly to Seymour Berkson (died in 1959) in 1936. Eleanor and Seymour had one son together, named William Berkson.

Career

She was one of the first to think of and create Fashion Design as an art form. Jackson Pollack, Jacob Epstein

Jacob Epstein

Sir Jacob Epstein KBE was an American-born British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British citizen in 1911. He often produced controversial works which challenged taboos on what was appropriate subject matter...

 and Isamu Noguchi

Isamu Noguchi

was a prominent Japanese American artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades, from the 1920s onward. Known for his sculpture and public works, Noguchi also designed stage sets for various Martha Graham productions, and several mass-produced lamps and furniture pieces,...

 were a few of the many artists she represented. In 1959 and 1967, she was asked by the US Government to present American Fashion for the first time, in Russia, Germany, Italy, Australia, Japan, Britain and Switzerland. In 1965, she was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to the National Council on the Arts of the National Endowment for the Arts

National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...

. In 1962, she organized the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America

Council of Fashion Designers of America

The Council of Fashion Designers of America, Inc. is a not-for-profit trade association of over 350 of America’s foremost fashion and accessory designers. As of 2009, Diane von Fürstenberg is the group's President and Steven Kolb is the Executive Director...

) and stayed an honorary member until her death in 2003.

In 2001 the CFDA created an award in Lambert's honor, “The Eleanor Lambert Award”, that is presented for a “unique contribution to the world of fashion and/or deserves the industry’s special recognition” Months before she died, she had left her International Best Dressed List

International Best Dressed List

The International Best Dressed List was founded by fashionista Eleanor Lambert in 1940 as an attempt to boost the reputation of American fashion at the time.People who have been on the list include from A to Z:-The International Hall of Fame: Women:...

 to four of Vanity Fair’s

Vanity Fair (magazine)

Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...

editors. Shortly after her last public appearance at New York Fashion Week in September. She died in 2003 at the age of 100. SHortly after her death her grandson, Moses Berkson, completed a documentary film about her life. He traveled with her back to her native Illinois he, asking her on camera, "What are you thinking about" and she characteristically replied, "I wish I was bak int eh office getting some work done"

Accomplishments

•AADA was established because of her.

•She was the founder and Press Director of the Fashion Press Week, New York (Now done throughout the world).

•She also started the trend of Fashion Shows for Charity.

She helped start the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum