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Fern Mallis is the Senior Vice President of IMG Fashion. She is widely credited as the creator of New York “Fashion Week.” Organized in 1993, under the auspices of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), where she served as Executive Director for 10 years. 7th on Sixth, as it was originally named, was created to organize, centralize and modernize the runway collections. 7th on Sixth provided a platform for American designers to become competitive players within the global fashion community. Acquired by IMG in July 2001 and now called IMG Fashion, the company under Mallis’ leadership currently produces Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York and Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Miami Swim.

In addition to overseeing IMG Fashion’s U.S. events, Mallis is actively involved in the growing portfolio of events around the world, including fashion weeks in Mumbai, Moscow, Sydney and Berlin among others. She travels frequently to international fashion capitals providing her expertise in creating and organizing fashion events as well as in establishing an international marketing and communications platform for fashion weeks globally.

Prior to joining IMG, Mallis was the Executive Director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) from 1991 to 2001, where she furthered the organization’s original charter to promote American fashion as a “recognized branch of American art and culture.” There, Mallis worked closely with the then two hundred-plus CFDA designer members on important industry matters and organized 10 annual CFDA Fashion Award Galas, which celebrated and recognized talents and contributions by individuals from vast areas of the arts and fashion industry. As Executive Director of the CFDA Foundation, Mallis was instrumental in the creation and worldwide licensing of Fashion Targets Breast Cancer, a campaign that has sold over $100 million in merchandise to date and has generated more than $50 million in donations for hundreds of breast cancer organizations worldwide through its licensees in Brazil, Argentina, the United Kingdom, Iceland, Australia, Canada and additional countries. Mallis also oversaw the highly successful AIDS fund-raiser, 7th on Sale, which twice grossed more than $8 million for charities. In addition, she implemented the Foundation’s burgeoning philanthropic goals to raise money for design scholarships and also helped create the CFDA/Target Design Initiative.

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