Doris Jaffe, a fashion activist from Boston, has passed away at the age of 94.

"Doris has been a game changer in this city," said Colette Phillips, president and CEO of Colette Phillips Communications. "For the first time, it brought Boston's black elite and Boston Brahmins together at Saks Fifth Avenue for one night, which had never been done before. To do it at a time when we were just starting to emerge from the shadow of the school bus was truly remarkable. She was able to break the barrier.".

Yoffe, who until the very end used her old Rolodex to monitor Boston and to connect with those she knew and needed to get to know, died Dec. 7. She was 94 years old and lived in Boston.

"She was a huge advocate for the black community in Boston," said writer Jonathan Soroff, a longtime friend. "She was the first person to really make an effort to show black faces on the runways and in fashion. Before the term 'community activist' really existed, she was a true community activist. "

Three years after starting her job at Saks, Mrs. Yoffe began raising awareness of AIDS along with fundraising at a time when many companies and big stores were wary of getting involved with the epidemic. "Saks is the only fashion store in the United States that does something for AIDS," she told the Globe in 1987, when she was fundraising for the Greater Boston AIDS Committee. "We have the largest budget for special events in Boston, and with my supervisor's permission, I use our budget to make social statements. "

Missis Yoffe "donated money to organizations that were making a difference in the community and social change," Phillips said.

Doris Slobodkin

Born July 1, 1929, Doris Slobodkin was the daughter of Jacob Slobodkin, a real estatedeveloper, and Frances Porter Slobodkin. She grew up in South Brookline and began volunteering at South End Settlement House from the age of 14, providing health care, day care and other services. After high school, she studied psychology at what was then called Lesley College and soon married Wallace Yoffe. They met at his sister's wedding when he was 18 and she was 16.

"I was seated at this table and this deadly beautiful man in a full-marine uniform walked in," she told the Globe in 2007 of his unfortunate accidental death. "He sat down next to me and I fell madly in love with him." They married and he became a real estatedeveloper. The Yoffs lived in Newton, where Wallace grew up, and kept a place on Lewis Wharf near the waterfront "because I didn't have a suburbanite mentality," she recalled.

"The most generous gift he gave me was to allow me to develop and build a career," she said. "It was out of fashion in those days, and my husband fully embraced it.

Activities at Saks

Before becoming fashion director and promotions director at Saks, where she stayed until 1993, Mrs. Yoffe worked at places like Bonwit Teller and the Newbury Street store where designer Alfred Fiandaca created women's fashion. She left her deepest mark on Saks, which became a platform for her creative initiatives, such as when she organized a fashion show at the Back Bay MBTA station. That came a few years after she organized a groundbreaking fundraiser for Fisk University in Nashville in 1984.

In a 1989 interview with the Globe, recalling the idea for the event, she recalled asking herself: "Why has Saks never done anything for Fisk, or for any black cause, for that matter? "

Personal life and legacy

In addition to her sister-in-law and nephew, Mrs. Yoffe left a son, Jeff, of Newton. Her other son, Peter of Newton, died Dec. 23 from injuries received in a house fire on the day of her private funeral service. A ceremony honoring Mrs. Yoffe's life is to be announced.

Besides making social statements, she also made fashion statements. Participating in a cow milking demonstration at an event to raise awareness for dairy farmers, she wore a green Valentino dress from Paris, Tiffany earrings and Magli shoes from Italy. During a 1990 interview, she looked around her living room overlooking Boston's waterfront and recalled that "a friend once said great compliments to me. He said the place reminded him of a Parisian salon." Among the miniature glass hats, antique perfume bottles, paintings and Art Deco furniture stood her favorite piece, a duck billet from the lake farm where her inspirational aunt lived - a place Mrs. Yoffe had often visited as a child.

Like that aunt, she preferred to do the work that many in her circle of contacts paid others to do. "When I have a dinner party of six people, I do my own cooking and cleaning," she said. "Some people are surprised by this. They say, 'Do you do your own dishes?' Of course I do.".