Stan Herman provides an overview of the CFDA

Having joined the Council of Fashion Designers of America in the 1960s, Stan Herman was a familiar face within the organization and on Seventh Avenue. Yet his ascension to president in 1991 prompted the WWD headline, "Stan Who?"

Decades later, at the age of 93, the designer happily reminisced about that memory with a laugh in an interview as a testament to some of the obstacles he encountered along the way. Without a doubt, Herman, who served as president from 1991 to 2006, remains the industry's oldest statesman, always ready to give context to any issues or struggles at hand - more often than not. with a touch of humor. His friendly approach to running the organization was not adopted by some of the CFDA's most revered and wealthy members, but Herman persevered.

His marching orders were clear from the start. After being elected after a four-and-a-half-month search, he told WWD, "Members feel that a change of direction is happening in the 90s. We feel that we can really do wonderful things, like the the Seventh on Sale AIDS benefit last year. We are also trying to re-evaluate our goals, rewards and how they will be presented, as well as how we represent ourselves in the industry."

Still playing tennis twice a week — even after a summer bout with COVID-19 — and designing and selling a line on QVC, Herman's vigor for the CFDA hasn't waned either. According to him, the CFDA “represents a very important bloc of people. Hundreds and hundreds of designers over the years have dedicated their entire lives to designing for America and the world. We have no other organization like this. He has a legendary beginning and he transformed into himself in different ways. It has remained relevant because it has a strong start. It's not false. It's a grassroots organization in an industry that's never been known for acting together or working together."

Specifically, in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, designers and independent companies were much more secretive in what was then "a family world," where designers acted like children, according to Herman. After Eleanor Lambert helped make the CFDA a reality, the designers began to grow and didn't remain children, some becoming very big companies while the CFDA remained their home base, he said. he declared.

Contrary to the band's current emphasis on inclusivity, this was not the case in the beginning. Somehow the fact that Lambert picked members from his garden of clients worked for a while. "But the sheer exclusivity gave it an imprimatur that made almost every designer want to be a part of it," said Herman, who joined the brand in the late '60s.

"For me, the CFDA has become the humanization of an industry that could be quite inhumane. I'm probably different from most designers. When I joined, I was interested. I never missed a meeting. It's my nature in everything I do. When I became president, I went to everything, to every meeting of every committee. I had time to do it. I'm not saying that it was better than Diane [von Furstenberg] or anybody else. That was the way I handled it."

During his tenure, the organization was not as large as it is today. “The members discovered each other, loved each other. Our membership meetings were filled with hundreds. There was a lot of shouting and saying what they say now, but behind closed doors,” Herman said. "That was the beauty of organization: you could air your grievances and move on."

As a young rookie designer eager to join the group, he was sidelined for four or five years. Designing cheaper clothes for Mr. Mort may have been a factor. The founding board of directors – Bill Blass, Oscar de la Renta, Molly Parnis and others – determined who was in and who was out. Herman even tried going rogue at one point to try to round up another group of young designers with the help of Alexander Julian. “We had a few meetings. We thought, “We don't need the CFDA. Let's do it ourselves. But every time I turned around, the board had picked one of our designers. So we lost our membership before we even started. »

Once he made the cut for the CFDA, Herman was "happy as a clam", especially to be able to talk to the more established designer...