|
↑ (Courtesy of Western Historical Manuscript Collection) Eleni Epstein (1926 - 1991)After World War II, women, and female reporters, found themselves at the heart of one of the biggest business stories of the 20th century: fashion. The debut of Christian Dior’s “New Look” collection in 1947, which coincided with the popularity of Glamour magazine, had suddenly made fashion newsworthy. And, apparently, no one covered the news of fashion quite like Eleni Epstein, the high-profile editor of one of the nation’s first fashion pages at the Washington Star. “A lot of women in our land may not know who the Secretary of State is,” Epstein wrote in the lead of a 1960 piece, “but they sure do know that Mamie Eisenhower’s milliner is Sally Victor.” A congratulatory note, on the unmistakable letterhead of the designer Valentino is just one of the historic documents in Epstein’s papers. From the Park Place desk of Helena Rubinstein, Epstein received accolades for her 1979 fashion page debut. “If all fashion sections were as clean, contemporary and intelligently conceived as ‘This is Star-FASHION,’” said the note, signed by Rubinstein’s director of public relations Joseph Mann, “the entire United States would be better dressed.” Washington noticed Epstein. In November 1979, an insightful article on fashion for the handicapped grabbed the attention of the National Endowment for the Arts. A personal letter from NEA director Larry Molloy noted the endowment’s office had been swamped with comments from readers with disabilities, who were overjoyed with Epstein’s coverage. “Our office has been flooded with requests since the article was printed,” Molloy wrote. In transforming the perception of fashion from fluff to innovation, Epstein helped transform the traditional notion of news. “Men don’t apologize for wanting to go into sports journalism,” said Kim Voss, a communications professor at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. “I have a real problem for women having to apologize for that. Fashion is a business.” |
