What happens when you have two CFDA members in conversation in front of a discerning audience? Pure magic.
On Thursday evening, the CFDA hosted its inaugural Member to Member Conversation featuring Steven Stolman and Gigi Burris O’ Hara at Freeman’s I Hindman Auctions on New York’s Upper East Side.
Hosted by CFDA Executive Vice President Lisa Smilor, the evening’s theme was two-fold. In addition to the talk, the auction house offered an exclusive preview of vintage couture clothing and accessories, including WILLIAM J hats by Bill Cunningham, who was an esteemed milliner before he became the original – and much-adored – street-style photographer.
“Bill as we knew him was formed by the confluence of extraordinary talent and repression…by his faith, his family, and, at least, society in his hometown Boston,” Stolman said, adding that New York “allowed him to blossom.” While in a training program at Bonwit Teller, he moonlighted as a hatmaker for Chez Ninon, he got fired – “the best thing that ever could have happened to him,” Stolman said, leading to the launch of WILLIAM J. The rest is fashion history.
Fast forward, and Burris O’Hara has, in her own very speical way, put a new, innovative spin on millinery with her imaginative designs.
A native of Central Florida, Burris O’Hara came to New York to study at Parsons in New York with a stint at the school’s Paris campus, where she discovered the city’s art of couture.
“I feel very blessed to be in a niche industry, because it allowed me to claim a voice. There isn’t as much noise,” Burris O’Hara. “I studied womenswear and wanted to be ready-to-wear designer but it was really the joy and emotion that I found in hats that led me to the path of becoming the owner of my own brand.”
The event brought out an audience of CFDA members and friends, including Jeffrey Banks, Michelle Smith, Alejandra Alonso Rojas, Patricia Von Musulin, Sarah Leff, Alexandra Lebenthal, David Kamei, Fern Mallis, Maliya McNaughton, Lana Turner, Laurel Marcus, and Regina Kravitz. Prior to the talk, guests were happy to try on some of the WILLIAM J hats on display.
Between Stolman’s historic context and Burris O’ Hara’s contemporary approach, the conversation was at once an education and an inspiration. In other words, a pure delight.
