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The Fashion Calendar · New York17 September 2026

Ruth Finley and the Fashion Calendar, the archive behind New York Fashion Week's schedule

Ruth Finley's Fashion Calendar was, for nearly seventy years, the record a New York house checked before it booked a show. The habit outlived her. A date is still cleared against the official schedule before it is confirmed, and that schedule is the Calendar the CFDA bought from her in 2014. Her archive became the searchable Fashion Calendar Research Database at FIT through a Digitizing Hidden Collections grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources, a programme funded by the Mellon Foundation. Historian Natalie Nudell was co-principal investigator on that build, then wrote the book and produced the film.

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01RUTH FINLEY RAN NEW YORK'S FASHION CALENDAR FOR NEARLY SEVENTY YEARS, DECIDING WHICH DESIGNER SHOWED WHEN.
02SHE LAUNCHED IT IN 1945 WITH A $1,000 LOAN FROM A COLLEGE FRIEND, AGED 25. FIT'S OWN ARCHIVE DATES THE FIRST ISSUE EARLIER, TO MARCH 1941.
03IT WAS AN INDEPENDENT, SUBSCRIPTION-ONLY TRADE PUBLICATION. A HOUSE CALLED FINLEY TO CHECK A DATE BEFORE BOOKING A SHOW, SO TWO LABELS DIDN'T LAND ON THE SAME NIGHT.
04THE CALENDAR WAS PRINTED ON PINK PAPER, SO IT STOOD OUT ON A CROWDED DESK.
05IN 1993, WHEN SHOWS CENTRALISED UNDER THE TENTS AT BRYANT PARK, THE FASHION CALENDAR BECAME THE OFFICIAL SCHEDULE OF NEW YORK FASHION WEEK.
06THE CFDA BOUGHT THE CALENDAR IN 2014, TRANSFER FORMALISED ON OCTOBER 1, AND TOOK OVER SCHEDULING FROM THE FEBRUARY 2015 SEASON.
07FINLEY STAYED ON AS ADVISER TO THE CFDA. MARY HACKLEY, WHO HAD WORKED THE CALENDAR FOR TWELVE YEARS, JOINED ITS STAFF TO CARRY SCHEDULING FORWARD.
08FINLEY DIED ON AUGUST 25, 2018, AT 98, HAVING RUN THE JOB ALONE FOR NEARLY SEVEN DECADES.
09HER ARCHIVE AT FIT RUNS TO 30,000 PAGES, DIGITISED SINCE 2023 AS THE FASHION CALENDAR RESEARCH DATABASE, WITH NATALIE NUDELL AS CO-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR.
10NUDELL ALSO WROTE THE 2024 BOOK IN AMERICAN FASHION AND WROTE AND PRODUCED CALENDAR GIRL, THE 2020 FILM ON FINLEY'S LIFE.

From the archive

ArchiveArchiveAzzedine Alaïa showed when ready, off the official calendar, at rue de Moussy6 beatsRead Open on Instagram