NEW YORK — Eleanor Lambert organized the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1962 with the belief that the creative minds behind American fashion should be recognized and promoted. With 50 of the country’s top designers — including Rudi Gernreich, Bill Blass, and Adele Simpson — joining her, the publicist founded what would become the voice of the fashion industry, ballooning over the next five decades into a group of approximately 400 members.

There’s also an art connection; Lambert was the Whitney’s first press director. She went on to represent American artists like Thomas Benton, Walt Kuhn, Jackson Pollack, John Curry, Jacob Epstein, and Isamu Noguchi. Additionally, she played a part in the formation of the American Art Dealers Association.

But back to fashion. In what perhaps is the most fitting way to celebrate the CFDA’s 50-year history, the group joined forces with the Museum at FIT for “Impact: Fifty Years of the CFDA,” an exhibition showcasing the group’s work, on view through April 17. “The word ‘impact’ sounds like an American car in the late ‘50s, one of those great convertible cars that really meant and illustrated the American dream, and therefore the word ‘impact’ illustrates what American fashion is about,” explained CFDA president Diane von Furstenberg at a press conference for the retrospective. “It’s about driving design and pragmatism. It’s about where the words ‘fashion’ and ‘commercial’ blend in into the highway of success.”

The show is as diverse as the members of the CFDA — with a selection of evening gowns, cocktail dresses, sportswear, suits, and more. Each CFDA member asked to participate in the exhibition contributed a piece that they felt best represented them. Patricia Mears, the museum’s deputy director, and Fred Dennis, the senior curator, picked items for deceased members. Narciso Rodriguez selected the red and black embroidered silk dress Michelle Obama wore on election night in 2008. Marc Jacobs chose a dress from his seminal 1993 Perry Ellis grunge collection. Von Furstenberg opted for her signature wrap dress in a leopard print. The pieces range from being relatively tame (a Traina-Norell evening set) to ridiculously flamboyant (a Thom Browne pheasant feather and wool suit). Geoffrey Beene, Thakoon, Ralph Lauren, Oleg Cassini, Stan Herman, Tory Burch, Oscar de la Renta, Norma Kamali, Donna Karan, Betsey Johnson, and Reed Krakoff were among the other designers who had pieces in the show.

With the limited space, the museum couldn’t hold items by every designer, so the remaining 300 or so who aren’t represented by a garment or accessory are featured in an interactive directory presented through 10 iPads throughout the space and a rotating projection of each designer located the north and south sides of the gallery.

While the scope of the show is broad, the CFDA is the one common thread. “It’s our being unified that makes us more powerful,” said von Furstenberg.

Click on the slide show to see highlights from “Impact: Fifty Years of the CFDA,” on view at the Museum at FIT until April 17.

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Watch the video below to see Diane von Furstenberg speak and the exhibition: