The Legendary Eunice Johnson
(April 4, 1916 – January 3, 2010)
At the ripe old age of 93, fashionista extraordinaire Eunice Johnson, the widow of Ebony magazine founder John Johnson and a fashion maven who ran thousands of traveling runway shows aimed at black audiences from 1961-2009, has died.
As not only the widow of the late publisher John H. Johnson who ran two of the longest running black oriented magazines in this country (Ebony and Jet), Eunice Johnson was a maven in her own right both creating and running the pioneering Ebony Fashion Fair Shows and Ebony Fashion Fair Cosmetics Line well into her later years.
Since 1961, Mrs Johnson made a tremendous impact on the fashion industry hitting over 200 cities each year with her high traveling charity fashion events that showcased not only black designers of the time, but the best in style on African-American models of different shapes, sizes, and skin tones as well. Being in the fashion industry for so many years and often dismayed by the lack of cosmetic lines that appealed to her primarily Black models and audience, Eunice created her own line of cosmetics in 1973 that catered to women with deeper skin tones and soon became a leader in cosmetics for women of color under the label Fashion Fair Cosmetics.
To her credit, Eunice was not only a powerful business woman and connoisseur of fashion, she was also an accomplished seamstress who made shirts for her father, a mother of one daughter who went on to become CEO of the legendary publishing company her husband started, and an advocate who sat on several boards geared toward the advancement of women and continually gave back to her community by lending her time, energy, and financial support to various organizations throughout her life.
J&O Fabrics would like to take this time to give tribute to the seeds planted by Mrs. Eunice Johnson, the doors made open, and the legacy she left behind. The fashion world would surely be lacking if not for the efforts of this remarkable woman. She will surely be missed.
novelty cotton fabric
women fabric
vintage pin-up girl fabric
70s retro fabric
