Sheppard, Eugenia

(1903-1984)

   Born in Columbus, Ohio, to a banker/food broker father, she attended Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. She began writing a women's column for the Columbus Dispatch, which was owned by her second husband's father, H. P. Wolfe. After her divorce in 1937, Sheppard moved to New York and began writing for WWD. In 1938, she landed a job at the New York Herald-Tribune as assistant editor of the women's page. By 1947, she was the Tribune S fashion editor and created journalistic history when she combined fashion reportage and New York gossip with pictures of society's most fashionable. In 1956, Sheppard's syndicated column "Inside Fashion" appeared in one hundred newspapers around the country, making her one of the most powerful fashion columnists in the country. Covering the European collections with fashion illustrator Joe Eula in tow, together they would go head-to-head against WWD, their biggest competitor. Sheppard's pen was so mighty that she was actually banned from the showrooms of designers Cristobal Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent, and Hubert de Givenchy for writing unfavorable reviews of their collections. In collaboration with Earl Blackwell, Sheppard wrote two books, Crystal Clear (1978) and Skyrocket (1980). Sheppard's career spanned more than forty years and, in her memory, the Council of Fashion Designers of America each year presents the Eugenia Sheppard Award to a deserving fashion journalist.