Stan Herman interview, 2017 June 20, 2017 June 20

The three-time Coty award-winning designer Stan Herman is truly a pioneering man. Not only was he the President of the Council of Fashion Designers of America for sixteen years, but also the founding president of 7th on Sixth Corporation; New York City Fashion week, for seven years. With KOMAR, Stan has incorporated his ready-to-wear design savvy to become America’s foremost designer of robes and loungewear.



His comfortable, lifestyle driven products can be found on QVC, QVCUK, QVCItaly. After 24 years on air he has built a return customer base of over 300,000 people and has sold over $100 million worth of robes alone. Furthermore as the leading uniform designer in the world his uniforms arguably cover more bodies than any other single designer.



As a pioneer in the industry, Stan popularized "fashion at a price" with his Mr. Mort label; a label sought by vintage collectors today. When most designers were relegated to backrooms, he served as a spokesman for the creative side of the industry, championing designer names on labels, and watching out for the good of his colleagues. He was on the vanguard of designer boutiques with Saks Fifth Avenue, and in-store designer partnerships with Henri Bendel.



Mr. Herman popularized the Designer Uniform. His list of corporate clients has included many of the world's leading corporations. FedEx, Jet Blue, United Airlines, TWA, U.S. Airways McDonald's, and Amtrak, Avis, Humana, RCCL, and Securitas along with Las Vegas Hotels including Paris, MGM Grand, and Monte Carlo. He did the latest designs for the newly re-opened Regency Hotel as well as the rest of the Loews Hotel system. He has also redesigned the next look for FedEx and the new JetBlue uniform.



Historically, he presented the first walking shorts to the corporate world, and the first knitted shirts to meet the quality demands of uniform wearability. As a leader in innovation, he keeps his programs at the forefront by using technologically advanced fabrics and following the consumers’ interests from a retail standpoint to make sure that the uniform is in line with not only what an employee expects his clothing to be but anticipate the next generation of fit and comfort. The branding positions of accounts such as FedEx have benefited from the studios blending of ready-to-wear clothing with the needs of uniform apparel.



As President of the CFDA, Stan was instrumental in their humanitarian fund raising efforts as well. The launch of "Fashion Targets Breast Cancer" and ongoing efforts, have raised millions for research. Additionally, under his direction, the CFDA has been a leader in benefiting education and fighting AIDS. He sits on the boards of both The Garment District Bid, and the Bryant Park Corporation.



He has been honored with the CFDA’s most prestigious lifetime achievement award for his advancement of American Fashion, as well as Lifetime recognition from the Dallas Market for his career in fashion, and GMHC for his pioneering efforts in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Phyllis Dillon is an Independent Scholar and Consulting Museum Curator. She has worked for over 35 years in the fields of costume and textile studies, and in museums as a textile conservator, curator and arts administrator. She was a textile conservator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Textile Conservation Workshop. In the 1980s-90s she was a grants officer at the New York State Council on the Arts in the Museum Program. In that position she oversaw the distribution of millions of dollars to Museum’s statewide.



For the last 20 years she has concentrated her research on the history of the Jewish role in the American garment industry and the history of ready-made clothing. She was Main Researcher and Associate Curator of the National Endowment for the Humanities funded exhibit: “A Perfect Fit: The Garment Industry and American Jewry 1860-1960 at Yeshiva University Museum in the Center for Jewish History in 2005 and co-authored the catalogue of the same name. She also had an article in a second book called A Perfect Fit published by Texas University Tech in 2012.



She was Associate Producer and Main Researcher on a documentary film called “Dressing America: Tales from the Garment Center (2014) in collaboration with Pacific Street Films . The film showed in international film festivals and was aired on PBS in 2014 and 2016.



Her latest publication is a chapter co-written with British business historian Andrew Godley about the history of the American garment industry in the book Chosen Capital: The Jewish Encounter with American Capitalism from Rutgers University Press (July 2012).



She holds a Certificate in Museum Studies and an M.A. in anthropology from New York University. She was awarded a Winston Churchill Traveling Fellowship to Great Britain in 1981 to study the differences between American and British Art Conservation Services and has lectured widely. Since 2016 she has researched and done selected oral history interviews of senior members of the Fashion Industry for the Fashion Institute of Technology.

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