“MODern World”

Stacy Lomman Fall 2012 Collection Red double face wool mini dress with cut outs & faux ostrich full length sleevless with black & white stripe lining (photo: Randy Brooke)

Stacy Lomman previewed her Fall 2012 collection titled “MODern World” at her runway show held Thursday afternoon in Chelsea. Stacy, a former design director of Joan Vass, was named a finalist in this year’s Fashion Group International’s Rising Star Awards. A designer without deep pockets, Stacy again produced a formal fashion show during one of the most visible times of the season – New York Fashion Week – using the Internet & social media as her main source of funding. She has over 2000 friends on Facebook alone who, via Kickstarter.com website, were able raise a total of $35,000 to fund all four of her runway shows.

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Grey haze sleeveless mock neck with patent trim Faux ostrich pencil skirt (Photo: Randy Brooke)

For fall 2012, Stacy designed a capsule 13 piece collection that she describes in her own words as “What’s old is new – MODernized” Here is her video and some photo hightlights from her collection:

Faux ostrich short coat with black & white stripe silk charmeuse lining with black latex shorts (Photo: Randy Brooke)

Dove grey shearling motorcycle vest & tweed pencil skirt (Photos: Randy Brooke)

Royal gabardine racer back dress with red trim (Photo: Randy Brooke)

Grey haze cropped jacket & pencil pant  (Photo: Randy Brooke)

Black crepe back satin dress with ribbon Union Jack back detail (Photo: Ernest Schmatolla)

– Ernest Schmatolla
(Stacy Lomman is a contributing writer to Lookonline.com)

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Stacy Lomman Spring 2012 Collection Photo: Randy Brooke

Stacy previewed her new capsule collection titled Biohazard  last night in front of a enthusiastic crowd of over 100 fans and sponsors at The Cutting Room, a soon to be opened hot spot for live music on East 32nd Street. A live band, NWSPR – New Wave Solar Powered Robots, provided music before the show, during a cocktail hour and after the show.

Stacy Lomman Spring 2012 Collection Photo: Randy Brooke

This is Stacy’s third season. Funding for her collections comes from donors, many of whom became aware of Stacy’s designs from social media sites like Facebook, then continued to follow her progress on her blog taffetadarlings.blogspot.com/.

Stacy Lomman Spring 2012 Collection Photo: Randy Brooke

Contributions were made via kickstarter.com, a website that specializes in helping new businesses obtain funding. This season, Stacy raised over $11,000 from 67 different backers.

Stacy Lomman Spring 2012 Collection Photo Randy Brooke

The show featured 12 edgy but highly wearable looks. Hard lines, raw edges, synthetic and surface treated fabrics served as the foundation for the collection. Outstanding were the motorcycle vest in white neoprene with white latex hot pants & white athletic mesh tank; cobalt jacket & cigarette pant in polyurethane coated nylon rip-stop; and strapless dress with black liquid bodice & fireball red cire skirt.

Stacy Lomman Spring 2012 Collection Photo: Randy Brooke

Bright white, neon pink, fireball red, vapor blue and atomic orange underscored her message of “hazmat chic”. This collection is not for the timid. It is bold and brash – designs that serve as aesthetic reminders to both natural and man-made hazards that threaten our lives.

-Ernest Schmatolla

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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

The post Stacy Lomman Fall 2011 Show appeared first on lookonline.

 A designer without deep pockets, Stacy (photo at left) was able to produce a formal fashion show during one of the most visible times of the season in New York City using the Internet as her main source of funding. True, it was not the first time money was raised for a fashion show on the Internet, but it was the first time the entire production was fully funded using Social Media. For our money, this was far more significant than the fashion shows moving to Lincoln Center, a 13 year old blogger sitting on the front row at the Armani show, the passing of Alexander McQueen, and for sure the runway return of Tom Ford.

Her show was revolutionary in many ways. Stacy was able to side step the entire process of how shows are traditionally produced. But more importantly, her show proved the Internet is completely changing the nature of how fashion is being produced, branded, editorialized and marketed to a worldwide audience.

The day may be fast approaching, when the big fashion shows being produced under the auspices of organizations like IMG Fashion Week will not be the first choice to launch or promote a collection. The Internet and the clever use of Social Media and YouTube can allow a designer like Stacy Lomman a far more cost effective way to showcase her designs to a world wide audience  and compete successfully with well established brands for consumer attention.

-Ernest Schmatolla

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(Photo: Randy Brooke for Lookonline.com)

Sixty years ago, the house of Cardin was founded and a legend was born. At eighty-eight years old, Pierre Cardin is a living legend who still has a lot of creativity to unleash and still has something to say about fashion. Friday night, Cardin let his voice be heard at the showing of his Spring 2011 collection at Milk Studios. Racking up about two hundred outfits, the word collection may be a gross understatement. The show and the music were a bit slow paced for that kind of volume which resulted in a forty minute runway presentation.

(Photo: Randy Brooke for Lookonline.com)

“I wanted to do something different,” Cardin said. Well, he did and he always has. That’s what makes him so unique. He has always pushed the envelope in terms of design by disregarding the practical and conventional. This collection stayed the course crossing the boundaries of “normal” or “standard.”

(Photo: Randy Brooke for Lookonline.com)

The show seemed to progress chronologically through the decades, but it jumped around a bit so just when it felt like a pattern had been established, an unexpected transition happened (like the modern day Marie Antoinette oval-shaped hoop skirts). One look that was repeated throughout the show was the “Barbarella” unisex unitards modeled side by side on a male and a female.

(Photo: Randy Brooke for Lookonline.com)

A student of architecture before he found his place in fashion, Cardin’s love for geometry remained intact and the circle shape took center stage. Grommets poked holes in boys’ and girls’ chests, layered hoops created funnel shaped shift dresses, angled ruffles ran like Jupiter’s rings around the body.

(Photo: Randy Brooke for Lookonline.com)

Some dresses were draped and cut in a way that created an orblike shape. Cardin used color brilliantly. His palette ranged from shocking pink, intense teal and slicker yellow to muted midtones and neutrals. Somehow, it all worked.

Backstage clothes on rack (Photo: Randy Brooke for Lookonline.com)

Overall, the show was a fun, colorful and avant-garde mix of shapes and fabrics. In other words, it was very Cardin. When it came to accessories, Cardin did not disappoint. Each hat, handbag, sunglass and necklace was more interesting than the next. Bags came in all shapes, but usually jumbo size while sunglasses were sleek and robotic. The millinery was so magnificent that even the “plunger” cap looked adorable.

Stacy Lomman with Mr. Cardin at the reception

Afterward, Mr. Cardin posed for some photos and made an appearance downstairs at the cocktail reception. He looked energized and happy, but perhaps a bit nervous. “What are they saying?” he asked. Only good things.

-Stacy Lomman
taffetadarlings.blogspot.com/

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FashionGPS sponsored report

Stacy Lomman Spring 2011 Collection
Photo: Randy Brooke

Once upon a time in New York City, Stacy Lomman, a talented, albeit not very wealthy designer, needed to find a way to finance her first New York Fashion Week runway show. So, with no Fashion Fairy Godmother in sight, this young createur conjured up a way to make her dreams come true. As reported on our DFR on August 13, Lomman, who was a former head designer at Joan Vass, turned to Social Media, in order to find not just one, but several Fairy Godmothers (and a few Godfathers, tossed in for good measure) to act as sponsors. With an eye on debuting her premiere, signature collection for Spring 2011 – “Precious Metal” – on September 13th, Lomman eventually raised approximately $12,000 from supporters on Facebook, as well as readers of her blog, taffetadarlings.blogspot.com.

Photo: Randy Brooke

For those interested to know more about all of this, the website, kickstarter.com, touted Lomman’s story, under the apt title of “Launch a Label at NY Fashion Week! Hot new designer collection!”, giving viewers the chance to pledge money at different levels, starting at a mere $5, all the way up to backing the designer and her show, with an “adopt a dress in the collection” pledge of $650 (or more). At this level, a sponsor got the interesting chance to own one of Lomman’s made-to-order dresses, each valued at $1,500+, plus a signed, color copy of the original sketch of the applicable garment, in addition to a one-of-a-kind Collection Book, including collection photos, copies of the sketches, designer bio, and creative inspiration. Also included in this package: show invite (travel expenses not included), the designer’s signature T-shirt, a signed postcard and a sponsor mention in the show program.

Photo: Isabelle Erb

In the end, Lomman’s plan worked like a magic charm, and the show, complete with goody bags, went on. Held at the fashionable midtown NYC restaurant Bricco, a good number of sponsors, along with press and assorted glitterati came to see what all the buzz was about. The designer, sporting a fabulous ensemble, featuring a gold mesh halter, with chain-link ties at the back, leather mini and sky-high, gold stilettos, greeted the crowd. One backer, Barbara Brandes, a Monroe college career counselor, connected with Lomman, through her (Brandes) daughter, jewelry designer and Lomman’s friend Wendy Brandes. Wendy Brandes is another of Lomman’s sponsors. “I have been a career coach to Stacy and I donated money to her line because I believe that if I can help someone to find the right career, that makes me happy”.

Photo: Randy Brooke

Yet another sponsor, Christine MacDonald, a glam, plus size, redhead from Huntington, NY, who hooked up with Lomman through the website, and then met her personally over lunch, “adopted” Lomman’s “Gwendolyn P” , sparkling, metallic coated silk dress with chain and bead trim, as an homage to her (MacDonald’s) grandmother, aptly named, “Gwendolyn”. James D’Adamo, Group Advertising Director, Hearst Magazines, and Fashion Group Board of Directors member, met Lomman at a fashion event and “opened myself up to her right away. We went back and forth on Facebook, and I encouraged my friends to know about Stacy; who she is and what she was doing. I became a sponsor, in what I viewed as a crowd sourcing investment. I gave a little money to make a big thing happen; sort of like raising an Amish barn, I wrote her a check”.

Left: Designer Stacy Lomman with model after the show
Photo: Wendy Brandes

While all of this was wonderful in itself, the interesting part of the story was allowing a designer without deep pockets to produce a fashion show during one of the most visible times of the season in New York City. The star of this show, afterall was the collection of evening and cocktail dresses. The majority of the strong, feminine looks, which focused on influences of l960’s Paco Rabanne, mixed with the glamour of the late 1940’s were credible and lovely. There were several standouts that commanded attention. In particular, this editor notes the gutsy and strong cotton and lurex with chain skirt that closed the show. This piece, much like Lomman, serves up more than just a bit of bravura, power, and the desire to step out of the traditional fashion box. Lomman deserves to be recognized for doing things in a different way; by not being afraid to go out on her own, and doing what needs to be done. And in the end, giving a new twist on what a “Fashionable Fairy Tale” is and can be.

– Adrienne Weinfeld-Berg

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