The origins of beauty: the history of fashion week as we know it.

Gazing at catwalk shows twice a year, in the hottest four corners of the world – by that I mean Paris, New York, London and Milan – is routine for fashion editors, journalists and buyers all over the globe.

Fashion Week is taken for granted anyone remotely aware of fashion, inside and outside the industry.

Shows are available online, almost instantaneously, ready to be blogged and commented about by trend fanatics. We know everything about catwalk shows: a day in the life of a model, backstage action, what the front row wears, what they eat, when they smile, everything. The history of the little black dress has been penned more times than models run the runway.

But there seems to be a major gap about the coverage of the event, and the big question is: where does it come from?

The French practically owned fashion up until the 20th century, so, predictably, the origins of the fashion show can be traced back to the French capital. In the 1800s, "fashion parades" regularly took place in Paris couture salons.

By the 1910s, the concept had been imported to the United States and large department stores were staging fashion shows to attract the attention of female shoppers. The monopoly was still French however, and the gowns displayed were either couture gowns from Paris or the stores’ own copies of them.

The first fashion week however was held in New York City in 1943 by an American fashion Publicist, Eleanor Lambert.

During the Second World War fashion insiders were unable to travel to a German-occupied France, and this is where Eleanor Lambert came up with the richest idea in fashion at the time.

She organised “Press Week”, an event in which American designers, previously overlooked, showcased their collections for fashion journalists.

No speeding from one tent to another, celebrities and champagne binges as we know them now, but the event still made a splash. It was a huge success; Vogue took up on it and American designers started to be promoted abroad.

After the war, the industry returned to previous fashion superpowers, namely Paris, London and Milan for the new fashion weeks that had emerged there, leading to “the big four” that still dominate the fashion calendar.

Fashion week as we know it now (with the media buzz and the tents), really started in spring 1994, after Fern Mallis, vice president of IMG (then executive director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America) centralised the New York shows in Bryant Park.

A chic victory for the fashion world.