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Stacy Stewart Smith — New York Atelier

ABOUT

Stacy Stewart Smith is a New York couture designer, fine artist, author, and educator whose career spans five decades of American fashion. A self-taught prodigy from Chicago's South Side, he trained under NAFAD couturiers, worked in the Manhattan garment center, and pioneered digital fashion illustration as a discipline — publishing the first American textbook on the subject through Fairchild Books, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing, in 2013. His bespoke menswear atelier produces made-to-order garments of exceptional craft in New York City. He holds a BFA with High Honors from the School of Visual Arts — graduating with the highest GPA in his class — and has served on the faculty of the Fashion Institute of Technology since 2008.

FULL BIOGRAPHY

Stacy Stewart Smith was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, in the Altgeld Gardens housing community, where he taught himself to make marionettes from library books and sold hand-embroidered scarves door to door before he was twelve years old. That early discipline — self-directed, resourceful, and entirely without institutional support — has defined every chapter of a career that now spans five decades.

By the time he graduated high school ahead of his class in 1980, Smith had already shown original designs at the Palmer House in Chicago under the auspices of the National Association of Fashion and Accessory Designers (NAFAD), been featured in the Chicago Defender and Chicago Mahogany magazine, and appeared on the WGN television news segment Someone You Should Know, hosted by Harry Porterfield — making him, at seventeen, a recognized name in Chicago fashion. His early couture training came under Evelyn Brown, president of the Chicago chapter of NAFAD and a student of Parisian couture, at the Sa-Mer Sewing Center on Chicago's South Side. He was named the first Todd White Scholar.

His professional formation continued at Gingiss Formalwear, the legendary Chicago formalwear institution, where he rose over six years from sales clerk to branch store manager and Special Events Coordinator — developing the etiquette, client management, and menswear expertise that now inform his atelier's bespoke practice. During this period he also placed his women's high fashion line in the JUST Class boutique on Randolph Street and built a private couture clientele in silk, linen, and fine wool.

In August 1987, Smith left Chicago for New York City to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology, arriving at Port Authority with two suitcases containing his entire fashion life. Within a week he was employed as an assistant fashion designer in the Manhattan garment center. Over the following years he designed across every category — womenswear, menswear, couture, junior sportswear, and licensed product — including a collaboration with Oleg Cassini on the designer's licensed line.

When NAFTA and the consolidation of domestic manufacturing effectively ended New York's garment industry as he had known it, Smith pivoted. He earned a degree in Theology from the Manhattan Bible Institute — graduating as valedictorian of his class — studied computer graphics at the Canali Design Group, and mastered Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop at a moment when almost no one in fashion understood their potential.

That pivot proved prescient. In the late 1990s Smith joined the faculty of the Wood-Tobé-Coburn School — an institution with roots in the legendary Traphagen School of Design — where he developed and taught Computer-Aided Apparel Design courses. His students, trained in the digital fashion illustration methods he had invented, graduated to positions at companies that had previously hired exclusively from Parsons and FIT. He was named Teacher of the Year in 2000.

The Wood-Tobé-Coburn School supported his return to higher education, and in 2004 Smith earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts with High Honors from the School of Visual Arts, graduating with the highest GPA in his class. At SVA he deepened his practice as a fine art painter and developed Abstractrealism — his original visual art philosophy combining figurative realism, abstract technique, and perspectival environments with elements of motion and spiritual content.

In 2008 Smith joined the faculty of the Fashion Institute of Technology. In 2013 his textbook CAD for Fashion Design and Merchandising was published by Fairchild Books, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing. The book, which he both wrote and illustrated, introduced the pedagogical frameworks of Virtual Digital Realism, Realistic Idealism, and Fashion Abstractrealism to fashion design curricula. It remains in use at colleges and libraries internationally and stands as the first published articulation of digital fashion illustration as a discipline in American fashion education. Smith is recognized as a forerunner of computer-aided fashion design instruction in the United States.

From 2020 to 2021 he served as Editorial Director of Arts and Entertainment at Vestal Magazine, an international independent fashion and arts publication, where he conducted celebrity interviews and authored editorial features appearing in both print and digital editions.

His paintings, produced under the Abstractrealism philosophy, have been exhibited at the Museum at FIT and sold through Gallery Guichard in Chicago and his own Stacy Stewart Smith Gallery in Brooklyn. Today, Smith operates his New York atelier producing bespoke made-to-order menswear: tailored coats and suits, hand-painted silk accessories, and limited-edition fine art prints. He is also the founder and editor of Atelier Weekly, an editorial journal of craft, culture, and the considered life.

He lives and works in New York City.

FACT SHEET

Atelier: Stacy Stewart Smith, New York City
Specialization: Bespoke made-to-order menswear, fine art, editorial publishing
Price point: Luxury / made-to-order
Education: BFA with High Honors (highest GPA in class), School of Visual Arts, 2004
Academic honors: Valedictorian, Manhattan Bible Institute; Highest GPA, BFA graduating class, School of Visual Arts, 2004; Teacher of the Year, Wood-Tobé-Coburn School, 2000
Faculty: Fashion Institute of Technology, 2008–present
Published author: CAD for Fashion Design and Merchandising, Fairchild Books / Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013
Editorial: Editorial Director of Arts and Entertainment, Vestal Magazine, 2020–2021
Early press: Chicago Defender, Chicago Mahogany, WGN Television (Someone You Should Know, Harry Porterfield, c. 1980)
Fine art: Museum at FIT (two exhibitions); Gallery Guichard, Chicago; Stacy Stewart Smith Gallery, Brooklyn
Publication: Atelier Weekly — journal of craft, culture, and the considered life
Website: stacystewartsmith.com

EXHIBITIONS & PUBLIC ART

Museum Exhibitions

Dreamer (oil on canvas, 58" × 58", 2004) — Lightness, Museum at FIT, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY — November 13 – December 11, 2010
Sanctuary for Peace (mixed media, 2004) — Fantastic, Museum at FIT, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY — November 10 – December 8, 2012

Gallery Exhibitions

Gallery Guichard, Chicago, IL — group exhibitions (multiple)
Stacy Stewart Smith Gallery, Brooklyn, NY — founder and curator

Public Art

Cafeteria Mural, PS 139K, New York Cares, Brooklyn, NY — 2004–2005

Auctions

Charity Benefit Auction, East Harlem School at Essex House, New York, NY — 2006

PRESS MENTIONS

NYArts Magazine, Vol. 11, No. 3/4, March/April 2006 — “Piece of Mind”
Chicago Crusader, Volume LXVIII, Number 6, June 7, 2008 — “Former Chicagoan Stacy Stewart Smith Presents Ascension in the Resurrection: Series Showcasing Abstractrealist Aerial Views from Eiffel Tower”
Chicago Mahogany magazine — fashion features (Chicago period)
Chicago Defender — fashion features (Chicago period)
WGN Television, Someone You Should Know, Harry Porterfield — broadcast feature (c. 1980)

SELECTED PUBLISHED WORKS

CAD for Fashion Design and Merchandising
Fairchild Books / Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013
Available through Bloomsbury Publishing and major academic libraries internationally.

Vestal Magazine — Editorial Director of Arts and Entertainment, 2020–2021

Selected online features: