Ruth Finley become Fashion Week's most important mover and shaker. For more than 50 years, Ruth Finley has been a major force in the fashion industry. Ms. Finley is the master planner of all of New York fashion events.

Ruth Finley. A publisher. An organiser, adviser, simply the very center of fashion-related events in New York, whether it's a seasonal opening, benefit gala, or a new designer's show. Snaker, mover and shaper. For more than 50 years, Ruth Finley has been a major force in the fashion industry. As the founder and publisher of the famous Fashion Calendar and Fashion International, a leading monthly newsletter of fashion trends and market reports, Ms. Finley is the master planner of all of New York's fashion events.

Ms. Finley has literally written the book on the American fashion industry's biggest event for designers, buyers and the press - New York's Fashion Week. Twice a year, established and up-and-coming designers show the clothing that the public can expect to be made available in stores for the following fall/winter and spring/summer seasons. This year's fall shows started Friday.

Ruth Finley has always been personally involved in fashion events. She is the calming influence in an emotionally charged industry. She functions as traffic director, mother confessor, psychiatrist and referee in helping designers settle disputes and resolve potential date and model conflicts. Her publication, with its distinctive red cover and pink pages, can be found on the desks of virtually all industry executives, who rely on it daily as an information service and to schedule all fashion events.

As tells Liza Irizarri in al.com, When Diane von Furstenberg was a struggling young designer and unsuccessfully tried to get some of her clothes seen in Vogue magazine, she got a bit of advice from a secretary as she walked out of the magazine's Manhattan offices: Call Ruth Finley.  "She came over from Europe and didn't know anything about how to get in the business," Finley recalls of the Brussels-born von Furstenberg. "She showed her things to the editor-in-chief of Vogue, but after that she didn't know what to do. The secretary told her to call me, and I told Diane to book a hotel room and set up appointments for showings to get on the map." The rest, as they say, is fashion history.

The Massachusetts native's distinctive hot pink "Fashion Calendar" has become the bible that tells everyone whose collections will be seen, where to go for shows, and what time to be there.

And without her, there have been catwalk catastrophes. She recalls one involving the late Norman Norell, the Paramount Pictures costume designer who was known during the 1960s for his suits and tailored silhouettes.

"One of the major designers, Norman Norell, thought he didn't need it (the calendar) and why should he bother," Finley remembers. "He had a conflict with a very important show and realized he had to use it. He ended up having to move the show after the invitations had gone out."

Norell asked for her help for future shows, calling her himself with hat in hand after his initial rebuff.

Ruth Finley is the proud mother of three sons --- Joe, Jim, and Larry --- and has nine wonderful grandchildren.