A native of Illinois, Douglas Hannant relocated to New York City in 1988 after having earned a Fine Arts degree from Missouri State University. He followed up with a degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology and with several stints in visual display field before launching his first fashion collection under his namesake label in the fall of 1996.
Now a prominent New York scenster, Hannant’s collection is available at the likes of Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, and Bergdorf Goodman. After a successful resort presentation just a few days ago, the designer has just announced that he will be launching his own footwear line.
Set to debut in the fall of 2009, he is also working on a hat line with designer Eric Javits. In addition, come August 1st, Hannant’s first retail boutique will open in the floundering Plaza Hotel Retail Collection in New York City. Hopefully the full page ad that the Plaza Hotel’s underground mall recently ran in the New York Times will help boost traffic by the time Hannant’s shop opens.
The Douglas Hannant retail space will be designed by Jeffrey Bradfield, and will house the designer’s ready-to-wear collection, his accessories, and his jewelry collaboration with Eva Jeanbart-Lorenzotti, which will be sold exclusively in the designer’s boutique as well as on Vivre.com.
