Page from Stan Herman's memoir Uncross Your Legs: A Life in Fashion
Please join Stan Herman, author of the widely acclaimed memoir Uncross Your Legs: A Life in Fashion for a thoughtful, engaging and fun-filled conversation with longtime friend and fellow fashion icon Fern Mallis.
On any given day, more people will be “wearing” Stan Herman than any other American fashion designer. Having recently celebrated his 96th birthday, he is the most acclaimed uniform designer of our time – and that’s just part of his remarkable, well-lived and well-loved life. Herman reflects on his background as a Brooklyn born, Passaic, NJ-raised young man, his Army service in Europe during the Korean War and his burgeoning fashion career a young freelance designer in the fashion hothouse of the Garment District. Later, he served for 16 years as head of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, where he was instrumental in bringing New York Fashion Week to Bryant Park – all the while continuing his thriving corporate uniform and, popular leisurewear design businesses.
The book is also a deeply moving and insightful memoir, following personal triumphs and tragedies, including his nearly 40-year relationship with novelist Gene Horowitz, who tragically suffered a heart attack and passed away in 1992. Together they lived their lives in the shadow of the AIDS crisis that decimated their personal and professional worlds. They also shared a beloved poodle named “Mozart,” who helped fill the void when Herman found himself suddenly alone. Herman writes with good humor and direct compassion, recalling the cruel and casual racism he witnessed in the military, his focus on animal rights within the fashion industry – as well as encountering the indignities and joys of his nearly 10 decades. Learn the history of the man whose vision has dramatically helped forge and transform American style and fashion.
Following the event, copies of Uncross Your Legs: A Life in Fashion will be available for purchase and signing.
This program will take place in Guild Hall’s Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan Theater.
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Stan Herman
Stan Herman is a three-time Coty Award-winning designer. His career has included the presidency of the Council of Fashion Designers of America for 16 years and the founder of Seventh on 6th, the fashion show in New York City. He has had a long career as a Seventh Avenue designer, starting with the Mr. Mort Label and with Henri Bendel ‘s boutique fashion. He is a leading uniform designer with such corporate partners as TWA, McDonald’s, United Airlines, US Airways, Loews Hotels, The TWA Hotel, the Sandals Resorts, and JetBlue since its founding. His work for FedEx is recognized as being one of the primary identifiers driving their global brand recognition. He has been selling his line of loungewear on QVC for over 31 years and continues to participate on boards that form the direction for the fashion industry and the neighborhood it encompasses, including Bryant Park and The Garment District, for over 40 years. He has been honored with the Lifetime Achievement from the CFDA and continues actively on its board.
Photo: Stan Herman Studio
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Fern Mallis
Hailed as the award-winning creator of New York Fashion Week, Fern Mallis has been called an industry titan, Fashion doyenne, and the godmother of Fashion. After two decades at the CFDA and IMG Fashion, Fern is now President of her own international consulting firm.
Mallis is the recipient of numerous industry awards including the 2013 Fashion Industry Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pratt Institute, the 2013 FIT President’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Icon of Innovation Award from Fashion Group International in 2022. She was inducted into Business of Fashion’s BoF 500 Hall of Fame in 2014 and serves on the board of the FIT Foundation. Mallis was just awarded the “Legend in the Fight Against AIDS” award from DIFFA Dallas.
For the last 12 years, Mallis famously hosts the acclaimed and sold-out 92nd Street NY conversation series Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis. She is the author of the book series chronicling this series by Rizzoli, and sponsored by Nordstrom.
Photo: Sophie Elgort
Sponsors
Performing Arts programming is supported in part by funding from The Melville Straus Family Endowment, and Monica and Peter Tessler. Music Programming is supported in part by The Ellen and James S. Marcus Endowment for Musical Programming.
Additional support provided by Friends of the Theater: John and Joan D’Addario, Christine and Bill Campbell, Gabrielle and Gianpaolo de Felice, Galia Meiri-Stawski and Axel Stawski, Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan, Michèle and Steve Pesner, The Schaffner Family Foundation, Lisa Schultz and Ezriel Kornel, Jayne Baron Sherman and Deborah Zum, Leila Straus, and Susi and Peter Wunsch.
Guild Hall’s Learning + New Works programs are made possible through The Patti Kenner Arts Education Fellowship, Vital Projects Fund, the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Endowment Fund, and The Melville Straus Family Endowment.
Additional support provided by Friends of Learning + New Works: Julie Raynor Gross, Stephanie Joyce and Jim Vos, Peter Marino, and S. Kutler Foundation, N. Glickberg, D. Glickberg, and J. Abrahams.