Adjunct Assistant Professor of Fashion Design Art, Fashion Institute of Technology · Bloomsbury Publishing · School of Visual Arts · CBS News · NY Arts Magazine

Stacy Stewart Smith is a New York-based couture designer, fine artist, and author whose work spans five decades of American fashion. He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Fashion Design Art at the Fashion Institute of Technology, the author of a Bloomsbury Publishing textbook used in fashion curricula internationally, and a graduate of the School of Visual Arts with honors. His bespoke menswear is made to order in New York City — conceived, constructed, and fitted with the precision of a house that has never compromised on craft.

Early Career & Couture Training (1977–1984)

Stacy Stewart Smith began his career as a Fashion Moods Chicago Style designer under the mentorship of Ebony Fashion Fair designer ClaRissa Brown — a childhood friend of his mother and likely inventor of the lettuce-leaf machine-embroidered edge popular in the 1970s. He attended the Sa-Mer Sewing Center on Chicago's South Side on a Todd White Scholarship, where he studied couture finishing techniques under Evelyn Brown, then Chicago Chapter President of the National Association of Fashion and Accessory Designers, Inc. (NAFAD) — an organization originally founded by Mary McLeod Bethune-Cookman and Jeanetta Welch Brown in 1949.

Stacy became a NAFAD member circa 1980. His designs appeared in boutiques, on national runways via Hamilton Vogue Esquire Models and Softsheen Products, and were custom-made for thousands of clients across the Chicago area. His work was regularly featured in Chicago Defender editorials — and in the spring of 1979, at age fourteen, he was interviewed by Harry Porterfield on the CBS News magazine broadcast Someone You Should Know.

Photo: 14-year-old Stacy Stewart Smith (center) with his designs on models Jackie (left) and Eloise. Design by ClaRissa Brown (right). Photo: D. Glover for The Chicago Defender, circa 1977.

New York Fashion Industry (1987–2003)

In the late 1980s, Stacy relocated to New York to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology. He subsequently worked in the New York garment center as a domestic designer — Made in America — creating fashions for various companies and contributing to millions of dollars in revenue for the national economy. As the industry shifted toward imports in the 1990s, he pursued additional training at Canali Design Group, mastering Adobe software and earning a certificate in desktop publishing. He was offered and accepted a teaching position there.

Academic Excellence & Fine Arts

Stacy Stewart Smith holds a Bachelor of Theology from Manhattan Bible Institute of New York, where he was valedictorian of the class of 1999. He served as Professor of Fashion Design at the Wood Tobé-Coburn School (a Bradford College) from 1997 to 2008, and was named Teacher of the Year in 2000.

He subsequently earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts, graduating with honors (GPA: 3.97, class of 2004) and receiving both the Stacey Cavrelle Memorial Traveling Fellowship and the Rhodes Family Award for Outstanding Achievement in Fine Arts. NY Arts Magazine ran a feature, Piece of Mind, on his Sanctuary series in 2006 (Vol. 11, No. 3/4). Gallery Guichard of Chicago represented his work from 2005 to 2009. View the Fine Arts collection.

Fashion Institute of Technology

In 2008, Stacy was recruited as an instructor at FIT and was subsequently promoted to Adjunct Assistant Professor of Fashion Design Art. He continues to teach there.

Published Author

Commissioned by Fairchild Books — then a division of Condé Nast, now under Bloomsbury Publishing — Stacy authored and illustrated CAD for Fashion Design and Merchandising © 2013 and 2015. The textbook remains in print and is used in fashion curricula internationally. He has also authored The Stokerdine Conspiracy (Glowing in Darkness I and II) and has written for and interviewed subjects for Vestal Magazine. Explore Fine Art & Books.

The Atelier Today

Stacy Stewart Smith is a New York couture house offering bespoke menswear and accessories of uncompromising quality. Every piece is made to order — conceived in New York, constructed in the finest textiles, and fitted to the individual client with the full attention of the designer. The atelier serves men of exceptional discernment who understand that true luxury is not purchased off a rack.

Browse the Fall/Winter and Holiday Collection and the Spring Summer Collection. Custom commissions are welcomed by appointment.

Why Made to Order

I have never believed in making something that wasn’t already wanted.

Every garment I produce is made to order — nothing exists until you choose it. No excess inventory sitting in a warehouse. No textiles cut and discarded. No energy spent producing goods that will never be worn. This is not a sustainability initiative. It is simply how couture has always worked, long before the fashion industry invented the word.

A well-constructed garment is also a durable one. The pieces I make are built to outlast trends, outlast seasons, and outlast their first owner. They can be worn for decades, passed to the next generation, and resold at value — because quality holds. This is the opposite of fast fashion, not by design, but by definition.

To buy couture is to buy less, and better. I believe that completely.

Photos ©2025 Stacy Stewart Smith Enterprises, Inc.