But Cleveland is still quick to credit the Fair with jump-starting her fashion career-and her acuity with makeup. Of course, there was an element of danger to the journey too, especially as it reached the Deep South. “The Fashion Fair was the most beautiful, glossy, glamorous thing you could have done in 1966, traveling around America and putting on these shows,” says Cleveland. Included in Cleveland’s invitation was a spartan suggested packing list-two pairs of slacks one pair of low-heeled shoes two cardigan sweaters one dark skirt two blouses fold-up slippers for the bus-and the warning that any model who missed a bus departure or skipped a curtain call would be responsible for a hefty $25 fine. With as many as 187 shows during a 12-week run twice a year, Johnson engaged the fashion-mad yet largely overlooked Black middle class, giving them access to Yves Saint Laurent and Valentino Couture that was impossible otherwise-and she ran a tight ship.

A kind of mobile runway show, Ebony’s annual trademark event brought highlights from the Paris collections to cities and towns across America via Greyhound bus. The cofounder of the Chicago-based Johnson Publishing Company-which produced the influential magazines Ebony and Jet-was officially inviting a then 16-year-old Cleveland to join the “traveling troupe” participating in that year’s Fashion Fair. In 1966, before she moved to Paris and became a muse to Karl Lagerfeld and Anthony Lopez, the model Pat Cleveland received a letter at her family’s Harlem apartment from Eunice W.

Fine Beauty by Sam Fine