Douglas Hannant

Born and bred in the Midwest, Douglas Hannant has risen through the fashion ranks from assistant window dresser at Barneys New York under Simon Doonan to the runways of Bryant Park and now his first stand-alone boutique at the Shops at The Plaza. In just over a decade, the Hannant brand has grown from a small company to an internationally-known fashion house. Style author Jill Fairchild talks to the designer about his meteoric rise. One day, not so very long ago, Douglas Hannant was running around the garment district picking up linings and other sundries for his bridal collection. He stopped in a little hole-in-the-wall fabric store just two doors down from his sample room on New York’s Seventh Avenue. His eyes darted up to a mezzanine used for storage. “My jaw dropped, my heart skipped a beat and I stopped dead in my tracks, “ the designer recounts. “There, standing proudly in a mound of rolls of fabric was ”˜my girl.’ She came back to me.” You might ask: Who was this goddess who caused the designer’s heart to flutter? She was the mannequin of his dreams from a display he had done years ago at Barneys New York downtown. He had never stopped thinking about her. What a sign from the heavens. A real “wow” on Seventh. She was definitely coming with him to The Plaza.