EBONY FASHION FAIR – The World's Largest Traveling Fashion Show
2009-2010 Season

For more than 50 years, Ebony Fashion Fair has been committed to the important efforts of community organizations and have worked together to raise an estimated $55 million in support of local charities. In light of the overall economic challenges that are affecting many, including our potential corporate sponsors, we have arrived at a most difficult decision to cancel Ebony Fashion Fair's fall 2009 season.

In the coming months, we will develop a new business model to ensure that the show is a mutually beneficial endeavor. Our primary goal is to build Ebony Fashion Fair and our other brands in ways that will continue delivering meaningful insight and inspiration to the African-American community.

Linda Johnson Rice
Chairman & CEO
Johnson Publishing Company, Inc

51st Annual Ebony Fashion Fair — The Runway Report
What's Hip. What's Hot. What's Now!

The famed runways of Paris, New York, London and Milan are once again sparking fashion bulletins and sounding style alerts as there is plenty of exciting news to be reported from the new world of fashion, featuring a new generation of models and designers forecasting what's hip, what hot, and what's now!

One of the biggest trends making fashion headlines this season is the posh reinvention of a fashion flash from the past known as the Grunge or Boho look. The popular 1980s trend of wearing layers of grungy mix-matched colors, patterns and textures re-emerged on runways around the world in hip, new remixed versions designed from layers of plush luxurious fabrics worn with sensationally-styled footwear and street-cool head gear.

All of the newly reinvigorated runway excitement was briefly interrupted by a scandalous, tabloid-type report of some well-known designers having a crush on velvet. That report was indeed true as an array of velvet-clad models sashayed down the runways adorned in gorgeous, color-rich velvet goddess gowns, dramatic velvet caped suits, and short but simple velvet cocktail dresses.

However, runways filled with awe-inspiring high-fashion always provokes reports of the working woman being fashionably forgotten. But to the contrary, professional, working women were well-represented on the runway this season with a slew of man-tailored looks executed with chic feminine flair and stylized with a variety of unusually shaped pants, jackets and skirts.

On the accessory front the report is daring and exotic. Sightings of shoes and boots lavishly embellished with exotic plumes and shiny beads were seen on both the domestic and international runways. Big and brightly-colored jewelry and handbags also made accessorizing appearances on the runway in a countless number of fabulous must-have, must-wear ways. The very best looks to catwalk down the runway this season were always the ensembles topped off with either a fantastical or practical hat.

The fashion stories for this season have been written. The trendsetting news is set to be to told.

Showtime:
Act I
Scene 1: Glossary of Style
Scene 2: Fad From The Past
Scene 3: Colorful Story
Scene 4: AttireTalk

Act II
Scene 1: Fantasy Island
Scene 2: A Cool Change
Scene 3: Proud Plumage
Scene 4: High Drama

Download Documents¹:

• Want to advertise at the show? View and print the 2009 Ebony Fashion Fair Advertising Form (57 KB)
• View/Download – the 51st Annual Ebony Fashion Fair Spring 2009 Magazine Cover (large file: 17 MB)
• View/Download – Biography of Ebony Fashion Fair Producer & Director, Eunice W. Johnson (large file: 54 MB)
• View/Download – Decades of Fashion: The History of The World's Largest Traveling Fashion Show (large file: 57 MB)
• View the Ebony Fashion Fair Poster (.JPG, 329 KB)

¹ All documents are PDF files, download Adobe PDF Reader for free.