Stacy Lomman Fall 2011 Show

Les Femmes de la Résistance

Right: Designer Stacy Lomman (Photo: Ernest Schmatolla)

Coming off her debut September 2010, Fashion Week collection, which featured a capsule grouping of sexy evening and cocktail dresses, and the like, Stacy Lomman, the former Design Director at Joan Vass, served up her newest, Fall 2011 signature offerings, focusing this time around on a wider array of wearable, sporrtswear items, the majority of which totally hit the mark.

Stacy Lomman Fall 2011 Collection (Photo: Randy Brooke)

According to the designer’s pre-show notes: “Fall 2011 glamorizes and romantcizes the bold and fearless women of the French Resistance, who lead high risk and clandestine lifestyles. Mystery, intrigue and espionage lurk within each piece in the collection. While the early 1940’s serve as inspiration, the collection interprets the period into modern and very wearable clothes.”

Stacy Lomman Fall 2011 Collection (Photo: Randy Brooke)

Showcased at Stepping Out Studios, a bright, airy midtown NYC dance studio, where in the big room right next door to where Lomman’s show was going on, several professional dancing teams put on their own kind of “Dancing With The Stars show”, as they went through their paces and practiced their steps, the mood was pretty much right where the designer wanted it to be. Editors and invited guests were treated to a bevy of beautifully coiffed, well-made-up, and equally, of course, well-dressed women, a la mode de la Francais; each showing off the aura of the clothing with a definitive air of polish and foreign intrigue.

Stacy Lomman Fall 2011 Collection (Photo: Ernest Schmatolla)

Case In Point: The collection nearly always made its point, mainly because of the designer’s deft use of her theory of elegance, balanced with lots of chi chi strength and femininity. All in all, and just about across the board, Lomman achieved what she set out to do, when she first addresed her drawing board this season, with an eye on crafting this type of European-inspired clothing, further enhanced by lots of de rigeuer luxe fabrics, dark, somber colors, clean, deconstructed shapes and silhouettes, attention to detailing, et al.

Stacy Lomman Fall 2011 Collection (Photo: Randy Brooke)

Although not every piece on this runway was a winner, there were those looks that really were standouts. The grey wool motorcycle jacket with distressed silver foil print, worn with a black wool/mohair skirt with back pocket, which opened the show was super. Moving on, the olive bomber jacket in crocodile patterned jacquard and black leather shorts was groovy. Ditto for the young, French and sensuale feeling of the the unlined trench coat in double face poly/nylon/mohair and heavy rib knit sleeves and mushroom grey cropped jacket in wool cashmere, lined with coated grey nylon, shown with matching pencil skirt with “gunflap” detail.

Stacy Lomman Fall 2011 Collection (Photo: Ernest Schmatolla)

But, while these pieces were all great-looking, and surely had their place in Lomman’s repertoire, for this editor, there were two ensembles that were definitely the icing on the cake, so to speak. The black slim dress in crepe back acetate with fleur-de-lis breast patch and leather trim with gunbelt detail was so “la femme Nikita”, while the outfit that closed the show — the flowing slate grey dress with full skirt in nylon “parachute” fabric — was tres belle, n’est ce pas?

Stacy Lomman Fall 2011 Collection (Photo: Ernest Schmatolla)

On a final note, in addition to the designer’s obvious expertise in the area of ready-to-wear, her talents also lie in the area of accessories. Her hard-edged and highly covetable gunflaps and gunbelts, seen as clothing adornments, were wonderful, and the use of those little, black berets, all bearing the “Stacy Lomman New York” white logo, shown off by a number of models on the runway here, was quite smart, to say the least.

— Adrienne Weinfeld-Berg