Fern Mallis is widely credited as the creator of "Fashion Week" in New York City, under the auspices of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), where she served as Executive Director for 10 years. 7th on Sixth, as it was first known, organized, centralized and modernized the American runways allowing American designers to compete head-on with Milan and Paris, forever changing the global fashion business. Acquired by IMG in July 2001, Ms. Mallis led new Fashion Weeks in Miami and Los Angeles, Berlin and Moscow, expanded Mumbai, and added Sydney and Melbourne to its portfolio, among others.

While Senior VP of IMG Fashion, Ms. Mallis also served as IMG's global "Ambassador" and traveled to international fashion capitals to provide her expertise in creating and organizing fashion events and establishing international marketing and communications platforms. She has judged fashion shows and competitions around the world, and mentored fashion students on how to succeed in fashion careers. She is consistently and widely quoted in the fashion press and broadcast media, and has been frequently featured on televised fashion programs, including America's Next Top Model, She's Got the Look, four seasons of Project Runway, and as the weekly judge on Bravo's first season of The Fashion Show, with Isaac Mizrahi and Kelly Rowland. Recently, she served as consulting producer on the CW network's reality series ReModeled.

Ms Mallis is the recipient of a great many industry awards and accolades. She's received The Fashion Maverick Award from the American Apparel and Footwear Assoc.; Woman of the Year Leadership Award from Concern Worldwide; Fashion Legacy Award from the Fashion Chamber of Commerce Sate of Style Awards; A Special Award from Diversity Affluence Organization; Leadership Award from the Fashion Center BID. On April 26, 2012, she was honored by Pratt Institute with their 2012 Fashion Industry Lifetime Achievement Award – presented to her by designer Calvin Klein.

Fern hosts a prestigious conversation series at New York's 92nd Street Y entitled Fashion Icons w/Fern Mallis, featuring notable in-depth interviews with Calvin Klein, Norma Kamali, Donna Karan, Tommy Hilfiger, Tom Ford, Michael Kors, and most recently Diane von Furstenberg. Guests booked for the Fall 2012 season will include Marc Jacobs, Polly Mellen, and Betsey Johnson. In addition to her 92Y series, she hosts Fashion Insiders w/Fern Mallis on Sirius XM's flagship celebrity talk channel – STARS, interviewing the best and brightest in the industry. In January 2012, she made her theatre stage debut in the Off-Broadway production of Nora & Delia Ephron's Love, Loss, and What I Wore. She is currently President of her own leading international fashion and design consultancy – Fern Mallis LLC.