Penn grad's connected fashion collection

NEW YORK - At 29, University of Pennsylvania graduate Stacey Bendet sits at the helm of alice + olivia, a contemporary fashion line known for its slim-fitting pants, striped tops, twirl-me dresses, and celebrity following.

There are four alice + olivia stores, three in New York and one in Los Angeles. The line is carried in more than 500 boutiques and several high-end department stores, including Bergdorf Goodman and Barneys New York. In May, Bendet inked a deal with Payless ShoeSource to design a line of shoes (wedged patent leather are her favorite) that will debut in spring. She has created a menswear line of cashmere sweaters called anthony + mo, named after her two best friends.

"I want to make beautiful clothing and bring the brand to the next level," Bendet said recently. She was sitting in her stark white studio, overlooking Bryant Park and filled with furniture she designed. This is the same building one of the first American contemporary designers, Liz Claiborne, worked out of for decades.

"That's the direction I'm going in. I want to do shoes. . . . bring in new product. Open new stores."

Her goals are expected, considering this fashion-as-a-lifestyle world that all designers are trying to master. But with only five years in the game, Bendet's success is nearly unheard of.

Generally, the fashion world is quick to snub and slow to embrace. And designers are usually long on needs and short on cash.

But then again, few designers have the connections Bendet has.

Bendet's father, Joseph D. Wiener, was involved in one of the country's leading lace-manufacturing companies. Her first promoter, attorney Mike Heller, is a friend of Lindsay Lohan's. Andrew Rosen, president of womenswear line Theory, is the principal financial backer of alice + olivia.

In this way, alice + olivia's success parallels that of other quick-to-come-up designers such as the Main Line's own Tory Burch and codesigners Georgina Chapman and Karen Craig (whose red-carpet line Marchesa benefited from Chapman's relationship with Harvey Weinstein, cofounder of Miramax Films). Their meteoric careers prove yet again that while talent is great, money and knowing the right people are key.

That's not something these well-connected designers readily admit. Bendet, described frequently as a socialite (one of her stores is in Southampton), is no exception.

In her studio, she tucks tiny legs underneath her sunshine-yellow empire-waist alice + olivia dress. Large black sunglasses hide her eyes, making her look like Nicole Richie. Her publicist, Nicole Pfeffer, wearing a green alice + olivia dress, is by her side.

Bendet speaks fast, and unlike other designers, doesn't gush about her fabulousness or the uniqueness of her line. She is matter-of-fact as she glosses over the recognizable names of people high up in fashion who were in her corner along the way. She knows people. It is what it is.

This is her story: She sewed as a child and says she had a lifelong interest in fashion. She lived with her family in Greenwich Village before her father moved them out to Chappaqua (she legally changed her name from Wiener to her mother's maiden name, Bendet, at the start of her professional career).

At Penn, she majored in international relations and lived in Paris; while there, she worked at the Style Network.

After graduating, she went to work for herself, designing Web sites. Some of her early clients were fashion designer Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss and downtown artist Patrick McMullan, as well as one of New York's top fashion public relations firms, Paul Wilmot Communications. But Bendet, along with former Penn classmate Rebecca Winn, had an idea that the two believed would take them from behind the scenes to the front of the tent. And that was skinny pants.

In the early days, the pants were known as staceypants. The trousers were slim through the hip and fashioned from bright colors. They fit like a favorite pair of jeans.

After designing a round of staceypants, the women asked Heller if they could host a fashion show at one of his parties. At the time, he hosted weekly functions for the "wealthy, uptown social crowd," with attendees such as Paris Hilton, Lenny Kravitz and Ivanka Trump.

"Stacey was part of the social scene and she had a great style," Heller said. "While everyone else was taking business classes and working in the stock market, she was out there networking, making connections for herself and creating a business for herself."

At that show, Bendet covered the models' breasts with bouquets of flowers (she hadn't yet designed shirts). Socialite Elisabeth Kieselstein-Cord walked the runway. Julie Gilhart, top womenswear buyer at Barneys New York, sent her assistant, and eventually ordered 100 pants.

And so after just one show, alice + olivia - named after Winn and Bendet's mothers, respectively - was born. Bendet was the designer and creative force while Winn, who had financial connections of her own, "invested somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000," she said, during the first year.

The pants started showing up on friends. Celebrities started getting mentions in top magazines like Vogue and InStyle.

After a year, Bendet brought her business concept to Rosen, whom she met when she designed his Web site.

"Stacey is a dynamo," Rosen said. "She's a tremendous woman with lots of ideas and passion. She knows who's important and what's important."

Rosen became a chief financial partner in 2003, investing about $300,000 in the company, he said. Turns out it was a good bet: Rosen said alice + olivia garners about $35 million in sales annually.

"From Day 1, she made money for me," he said. "I knew she would be successful because she started with a singular idea. She made a name for herself by making pants better than anyone."

Bendet is now the sole public face of alice + olivia. Winn, whose married name is Matchett, remains a silent partner and formed the custom women's shirt company called Rebecca & Drew. The two no longer socialize.

Today, alice + olivia is a 100-plus-piece seasonal grouping of pants, skirts and leggings. "I like to call them a collection of separates," Bendet said.

Spring and fall 2007 have Bendet working with a lot of black, white, gray and sequins, including metallic, rock-star-style polo shirts, and mod tiered dresses that shimmer when you shake them.

The celebrity following continues. This spring, Sarah Jessica Parker and Emma Roberts were photographed wearing the same alice + olivia black-and-blue sparkly shift, setting off a debate in the fashion world over who looked better.

While cute, the clothes definitely skew tiny. Bendet's clothes fit the very thin.

"It definitely fits our smaller customer better," said Maureen Doron, owner of Skirt in Bryn Mawr; the line is one of her store's top sellers.

"It's a good pant for women who are small and have a hard time finding pants that fit. It's sexy, it's tailored. It's even a little bohemian."

Bendet is ready to wrap this up. She has a 4 p.m. meeting, and she's left her BlackBerry downstairs in her office.

But she ends on this note: She doesn't have a television; who has time? She doesn't follow the print or Internet coverage of her social endeavors (which include mentions in Page Six and Gawker.com). She's too busy.

"There is not a person near me that won't tell you that I'm the hardest worker that you've ever met," she says, her eyes still hidden by her sunglasses. "I get up at 5 in the morning. I go to yoga at 5:45 a.m. I'm here [at the studio] by 7:30 and I'm here until 9:30 p.m. That's me.

"You can call me a socialite, but I'm a hard worker."