With Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week and all its glitzy hoopla swirling around New York this week, Stacy Morganstern Igel is a fashion designer whose story is about ultra-clear focus since childhood and lots of hard work. Sounds dull, right?

Au contraire.

The walls of her 34th Street studio are filled with framed covers of magazines that have featured her clothes as well as celebrities who have worn them. She just finished a shoot of her Spring 2009 line with the co-host of MTV’s TRL, Lyndsey Rodrigues. Her line is in the current issues of Lucky and Seventeen magazines. 

With the new season premieres last week of TV shows like Gossip Girl and 90210, she is closely gauging product placement and what pieces of hers might get some air time. On the day I was there to interview her, she was expecting Kimora Lee Simmons to drop by.

It goes like this. At age three, Morganstern Igel was outfitting her pre-K classmates with “makeshift designs and home-made charm bracelets.” When the theme persisted, her entrepreneurial mother ran with it.

“She wanted me to learn every angle,” said Morganstern Igel. That meant developing hand-sewing skills at ages six through eight, learning to sell by working at the Gap (GPS) in sixth, seventh and eighth grades, going to trade shows with her mother (who manufactured lumbar support products), learning an invoicing system and taking a trend forecasting class.

“I wasn’t allowed to just sew,” she said. “I was fighting it then, but I’m thankful for it today.”

Morganstern Igel kept the theme going in college. Unlike most students in the design program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who focus on one thing, she triple majored in fashion design, retail and business. While in college, she had summer internships in New York with Donna Karan and Elsa Klensch, and one in London with Zandra Rhodes. Once out of college and back in New York working for Elie Tahari, she learned about things like fitting and the “craziness” of working until 2 a.m. Then, in need of a more corporate atmosphere, she jumped to Izod, where the norm was working until 9 p.m. instead of midnight.

“I started to think, ‘Can I do this on my own?’” said Morganstern Igel. “What I realized is, along with everything else, you have to have a lot of moxie and guts. So I asked to work four days a week so I could get my own business started on that one day.”

As her plan for independence progressed, she decided to leave Izod. She got her Spring 2002 line ready for the Workshop Show in Chelsea Market on Sept. 11, 2001, which was of course cancelled in the wake of the terrorist attacks. As it turned out, the American flag ribbon Morganstern Igel had incorporated into her design with July 4th in mind caught the attention of buyers at Bergdorf Goodman when the show finally happened in October.

“My mom was helping me show and sell,” she said. “I remember her turning to me, so excited. Bergdorf Goodman is her favorite store in New York.”

What followed was a whirlwind of working out of her apartment, finding out that you need to be able to produce what you sell, and learning the hard way that managing doesn’t mean becoming too friendly with your employees or assuming they have the same level of commitment to the company that you do.

“My employees were older than me. I was not ready to be a manager,” Morganstern Igel said about her launch.

But her line was ready for bigger and better things. In an early 2005 episode of Gilmore Girls, the character of Lorelai wore a short-sleeved, heather gray T-shirt with the Boy Meets Girl logo in black on it.

“Nordstrom picked up my line because of that shirt,” says Morganstern Igel, who describes her clothes as couture comfort and chic basics. “That was a moment. I found out the power of the press.”

While Sarah Jessica Parker had worn one of her tank tops in a Sex and the City episode, the logo wasn’t showing, so it didn't have the same impact. But Boy Meets Girl bags, hoodies, T-shirts, dresses and the like reflecting what Morganstern Igel calls the “edgy, demure, eclectic” female, have been spotted on Eva Mendes, Teri Hatcher, Kelly Ripa, Anne Hathaway and Hillary Duff, among others. Her wares have been seen on Heroes, America’s Next Top Model and MTV’s The Hills.

Now, Morganstern Igel is more equipped than ever to meet demand, thanks to Oved Apparel’s acquisition of Boy Meets Girl. Oved is one of the largest makers in the apparel industry (i.e., Mecca, Akademiks, Modern Culture).

“They’re more men’s specialty and hip hop, but they’re getting to know the women’s market because of me,” Morganstern Igel said. “I’m finally at a point where I can use a lot more of my creative and people skills.”

To further a vision that is 28 years old and counting.

Nancy Colasurdo is a practicing life coach and freelance writer. Her Web site is www.nancola.com. Please direct all questions/comments to FOXGamePlan@gmail.com.