Audrey Smaltz from Ebony Fashion Fair to backstage on 'fashion avenue': former model blessed with 'a real knowledge of fashion, a good voice and a sense of humor …'

IN 1958, AUDREY SMALTZ, A STUNNING, 6-foot-1-inch former Harlem beauty queen, failed to make the cut as an Ebony Fashion Fair model because she was too tall to fit into the runway garments. But Smaltz finally discovered her true calling in 1970 when she was hired to be the show's commentator, a post she held until 1978. Most veteran Ebony Fashion Fair showgoers agreed that the loquacious Smaltz was the most memorable host ever. From coast to coast, she charmed audiences with her mellifluous diction, with original quips such as: "It takes courage to wear Courreges" and "His first name is Bill, and his last is Blass."

Perched onstage in a tall director's chair in a slinky Halston number, Smaltz held forth with the command of a Broadway thespian. To make it work "you have to have a real knowledge of fashion, a good voice and a sense of humor," she says. And a sense of drama. Smaltz imparted a real French accent on chiffon or Hu-bert de Given-chy.

Smaltz attests that her seven years on the Ebony Fashion Fair circuit were "the best education, the best exposure that I could ever get." Every July, she accompanied Ebony Fashion Fair Director Eunice W. Johnson and her teenage daughter, Linda, on a first-class whirl to shop the couture salons in Rome, Paris and Milan, among the continental jet-set. Smaltz upgraded her own wardrobe along the way and was thrice named to the International Best Dressed List in the 1970s. She recalls: "Here I was making $275 a week, and writing out $50,000 checks for outfits Mrs. Johnson picked for the show."

In those seven years, Smaltz witnessed all the madcap, backstage frenzy during Ebony Fashion Fair presentations, which showcased as many as 160 outfits--or almost three times as many looks as fashion houses such as Valentino and Chanel put on a runway. She resigned from Ebony Fashion Fair, ready to parlay her considerable expertise in all things fashion in New York.

Today, at 70, the ever-stately Smaltz is best known for her fashion show-production business known as the Ground Crew, which she launched in 1987, around the time that designer fashion shows were starting to become extravagant, complicated productions.

Now with more than 200 designer shows during New York's Fashion Week twice a year, dozens of fashion publicists and freelancers have carved out all kinds of special services associated with the logistics of staging fashion shows. And it is the Ground Crew that has set the golden standard backstage at fashion shows in New York. Over the years, Smaltz has hired and trained hundreds to do dozens of tasks, including dressing and styling models, steaming garments, tailoring, and coordinating catering and music. Hundreds of aspiring designers, makeup artists, stylists and fashion-school students jockey for a coveted slot with the Ground Crew, which, during Fashion Week, serves more than 30 of the top fashion houses, including Donna Karan, Oscar de la Renta, Chado Ralph Rucci, Bill Blass and Michael Kors.

Donna Karan started employing the Ground Crew 20 years ago--and calls them for every show. "We consider them indispensable," says Patti Cohen, Karan's longtime publicist. Another years-long client, Michael Kors, says: "Audrey brings so much energy to backstage. They even do a prayer circle before every show."

The Ground Crew keeps busy year-round with a corporate roster that includes Victoria's Secret, Target, Macy's, Liz Claiborne and Bergdorf Goodman. Smaltz promises her clients: "We are here to make you look good."

Ground Crew workers, whose pay starts at $10 an hour, are forbidden from talking to the designers or networking while they are on the job. But these fashion toot soldiers know the experience is a career launching pad.

In one such instance, a willowy, blonde Ground Crew worker got an unexpected break when she was told to replace a missing model right before a show. It was a runway moment that led her to being discovered by the legendary fashion editor Carrie Donovan, who featured her in a fashion layout in The New York Times Sunday fashion magazine.

Smaltz pulled the name "the Ground Crew" from a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who marveled at the magnificent jumbo jets of the 1960s. He said: "But before the pilots can get that plane up into the air! To fuel it! To keep it clean! You need the ground crew!"

After having relocated to New York 30 years ago, Smaltz has operated her consulting business--which includes public speaking and charity fund-raising--from her cozy penthouse apartment off Fifth Avenue, just around the corner from the famous Trump Tower. Smaltz declares she got there first: "Donald Trump moved into MY neighborhood."

Teri Agins is a senior writer for The Wall Street Journal.

COPYRIGHT 2007 Johnson Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning