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By
Romy de Courtay |
At left: gold-beaded tulle fringe gown from the fall
2005 collection. |
You
need a healthy appreciation of your own special place in
the world to wear Douglas Hannant’s unabashedly opulent
designs. Any established or aspiring socialite knows that
a sure way to catch the photographers’ collective
eye at one of the countless soirees that make up her social
calendar is to wear a sparkling, glittering and swishing
Douglas Hannant outfit dripping in beads, velvet and fur.
“The woman I dress lives in a very competitive world,”
says the 39-year-old Illinois native. “She likes to
light up the room when she walks in.”
Hannant earned degrees at
Missouri State University and New York’s Fashion Institute
of Technology. He subsequently spent a couple of years as
display director for Barneys and Bloomingdale’s and
never so much as apprenticed under another designer before
launching his eponymous company in 1996 with fellow FIT
graduate and company president Frederick Anderson. “I
never even put a portfolio together,” he says. “I
knew what I wanted to do.”
Thanks primarily to word of
mouth and the deep pockets of a growing coterie of society
ladies, including Kathy Hilton, Audrey Gruss, Somers White,
Pamela Gross, Marisa Noel Brown, Muffie Potter Aston and
Patty Raynes, the company’s wholesale revenues have
leapt from $500,000 in 1997 to $3 million in 2004 and sales
for 2005 are projected at more than $4.5 million. Heady
with success, the partners in life and business have just
signed a fur license and launched a women’s shoe collection
and a men’s separates line for fall 2005. They are
currently working on a new accessories line for 2006 while
contemplating a future made up of furniture and fragrance.
“We’re more about lifestyle than trends,”
says Hannant.
So, why all the attention?
“Douglas makes beautiful clothes that make a woman
feel feminine, sexy and modern and incredibly elegant, all
at the same time,” says Pamela Gross. “He has
a very young and fresh take on what is classic and appropriate
for evening and for day. His clothes combine mystery, flirtation
and confidence.” |
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| Clockwise
from top left: dove-gray Lurex tweed camisole, charcoal-gray
sequined tweed flared skirt. Plum hammered-satin halter
gown with crystal strap. Silver-gray Lurex tweed coat,
satin camisole and dove-gray cashmere/mink trousers.
Silver-silk Lurex jacquard jacket with tulle trim, silver-beaded
skirt. Gold-satin gown, golden sable capelet. White
dévoré velvet gown. |
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Frederick Anderson, Audrey Gruss and Douglas Hannant
at the First Care Gala in Palm Beach. |
Debbie Bancroft, Douglas Hannant, Frederick Anderson
and Somers White at last year’s Southampton Hospital
Gala. |
Known for his lightly tailored
signature tweeds trimmed in suede or velvet, Hannant designs
mix-and-match separates featuring a slim fit, higher armholes
than traditional luxury wear and bottoms cut a little below
the waist. He also favors blatant and unapologetic glamour.
“Clothing is about self-esteem,” he asserts. “It’s
empowering and uplifting.”
With his fall 2005 “Snow
Princess” collection, Hannant drapes his princesses
in frosted white, silver and gold tweed, satin, felted wool
and leather, swathing them in mink, sable and lambskin. “I
hate overintellectualized clothing,” claims the designer,
whose silver Lurex tweed coat paired with a pleated satin
camisole and gray cashmere and mink trousers can hardly be
dubbed anything but “rich, rich, rich.”
Never a shrinking violet, Hannant’s
30- to 40-something jet-setter will shine (in more ways than
one) this fall in a pink Lurex tweed top and flared skirt
topped with a charcoal-gray mink stole eminently appropriate
for a lady of leisure. (“My customer doesn’t wear
a lot of black,” says Hannant. “That’s more
for a working woman.”) For cocktails, she might choose
a silver Lurex jacquard jacket with a lace trim and beaded
skirt and, for the evening, a silver-beaded bustier and panne
velvet mermaid skirt, gold-satin evening gown under a gold-sable
capelet or golden reversible sable coat over a fringe-beaded
halter dress. (Prices for a suit hover at $3,000. An evening
gown ranges from $3,000 to $15,000. The collection is sold
at Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and
luxury boutiques across the nation.)
“First, I love Douglas,”
says best friend and inspiration Debbie Bancroft. “And
then I love his clothes! His line is ladylike but sexy and
classic yet modern. When I’m wearing Douglas Hannant,
I feel subtly luxurious.”
While celebrities such as Charlize
Theron, Beyoncé Knowles, Halle Berry, Celine Dion and
Lorraine Bracco (a close friend and loyal client) have also
been known to wear Douglas Hannant, “I’m not interested
in designing for Hollywood,” says the designer. “I
hate that whole game.” Nevertheless, when Sarah Jessica
Parker, enamored with the ivory cashmere basket-weave coat
with a snow-frost fox trim that she wore on the final episode
of Sex and the City, sent a check to the designer the very
next day, he did not hesitate to pull it out of the line even
though it was the only sample.
Hitting as many as three parties
on any given night to be with his ladies, Hannant also moves
in a pack with them during summers in Southampton and occasional
forays to Palm Beach. But for nine months of the year, he
and Anderson escape their Central Park South apartment for
a “fashion-free zone” – a weekend house
in the mountains of Pennsylvania.
While well-born designers Oscar
de la Renta and Carolina Herrera’s indubitable talent
and peerless connections have long allowed them to hold sway
over social-set fashions, Hannant has managed to carve a niche
for himself in the luxury market “with a younger, modern
sensibility.” Small wonder: The farthest thing from
the mind of a Hannant devotee is appearing matronly or, God
forbid, passé. “The woman I dress grew up wearing
jeans,” he points out. And, while she is slowly but
surely inching toward early middle age, “You don’t
have to age gracefully!”
Who, in today’s youth-driven
society, would dare to disagree? |
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| Romy
de Courtay is a New York-based fashion, travel and lifestyle
writer whose articles have appeared in U.S. and European publications,
including Town & Country, Elle Décor, Athens
Insider and Elite Traveler. |
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Photo
credit:
Image 1 and 2: Lucien Capehart Photography; runway images
3-8: Dan Lekka Photography; image 9: Lucien Capehart Photography;
image 10: Patrick McMullan. |
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