It’s hard to keep a secret from Stan Herman – especially not when it came to his surprise 90th birthday celebration CFDA and Donna Karan threw for the designer and former CFDA President at Urban Zen on Thursday.
“Believe me, it was not easy,” Jeffrey Banks, who played a role in the planning, said. “Stan was like, ‘I don’t want to have a party…I do want to have a party…I don’t want to have a party. All the while, I knew this was being planned. An hour ago, he told me, ‘I don’t want to go to dinner.’ I said, ‘You’re going.”
The ruse: dinner at Donna Karan’s “new” restaurant above the Stephan Weiss Studio. Said eatery was fictitious, made up for the special occasion.
Herman’s arrival was anticipated, with CFDA members such as Bonnie Young and Kay Unger hiding behind one of the sofas and Fern Mallis behind a cushion.
“Shhhhhh, this is a surprise party,” Karan whispered. “We are waiting for Stan. Happy birthday, Stan… it’s not just any birthday. It’s impossible that you are 90. Impossible, impossible, impossible. You look 10 years younger than me, and I am turning 70 next month. This is just not cool.”
When Herman walked into the space, the crowd – including Diane von Furstenberg, Mary McFadden, Adrienne Landau, Mimi So, Nicole Miller, Eric Javits, Peter Arnold, Sal Cesarani, and Gerard Yosca – lept up from behind its covers to wish him a happy birthday.
Broadway legend Bernadette Peters sang Happy Birthday for the new nonagenarian.
Peters and Herman are fans of each other—who can forget Peters singing for Herman when he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2006 CFDA Fashion Awards?
“I love his vibrancy, and his interest in life,” Peters said. “He plays tennis all the time and is in great physical shape.”
The accolades kept coming throughout the evening.
“He’s just such a mentsch,” said Rafe Totengco.
“I love his wit,” Yeohlee Teng noted.
Mallis, who worked in tandem with Herman at the CFDA, called him her “bff” and lauded him for his loyalty and knowledge. “He knows every tree on the lake. He knows every bird,” she said of her Hamptons neighbor. “He knows every opera song the minute it begins. He is knowledgeable about a lot of things…not just fashion.”
Derek Lam cited his enthusiasm, depth of knowledge and lightness of spirit as among the reasons Herman is so admired and loved. “He is the absolute opposite of a cynic which is wonderful,” Lam said.
It wouldn’t be a birthday celebration without champagne – Perrier-Jouët, of course – and a special cake, made by CFDA member Charlotte Neuville and topped with one of Herman’s Mr. Mort girls.
“Strawberry Shortcake is his most favorite cake,” Neuville said. “Stan is one of my dearest friends in the fashion industry. Hes taken good care of me since I first started and was inducted into the CFDA in 1996 and he’s been by my side ever since and given me the most valuable advice and mentored me.”
The room –with CFDA members such as Reed Krakoff, Mimi So, Prabal Gurung, Stephen Dweck, Patricia Underwood, Martin Cooper, Cathy Hardwick, Colette Malouf, Matt Murphy, and Sachin and Babi Ahluwalia – was full of love for Herman.
“Turning 90 years of age is a milestone in any life,” Banks said, “nut in a life as rich and as full of accomplishment as Stan Herman’s, it is truly marvelous. Stan’s ability to connect with and nurture designers is legendary, and the proof is the outpouring of love he received from his many peers and friends!”
As CFDA President and CEO put it, There would be no CFDA today if it wasn’t for Stan. He is the patriarch of our fashion family and also our historian.”
As for the birthday boy himself, he truly was surprised.
“Shocked,” he said. “There must be a gene in me called a naïve gene. I didn’t put anything together. I went home. I told Michael [Schwartz, who works with Herman] I wasn’t feeling well. When I started walking up the stairs, I said, ‘This is Donna’s place…there is a restaurant up there? Are you crazy? I know that place.”
He recalled becoming President of the CFDA at a difficult time for him, and he channeled his energy and creativity into the organization.
“I lost the love of my life after 40 years together,” Herman said. “That’s when the CFDA came into my life. It became my life.”
Happy Birthday, Stan, from all of us at the CFDA!
