Zac Posen (Q3727)
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Zac Posen is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Zac Posen |
Zac Posen is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
creative director
2002
Assistant Designer
Zac Posen is designing costumes for the New York City Ballet’s Fall Fashion Gala. He’s been spending a couple of days a week with the company this summer studying tutus by Barbara Karinska, Balanchine’s costumer, and it shows in his latest offering, with its rigorous structure and yards of pastel tulle. Posen doesn’t think in terms of “fronts and backs,” but this collection puts a particular emphasis on three dimensionality. Horsehair-reinforced arabesques trace from shoulder to hip on a jacquard shift; mille-feuille layers of net descend in tiers from strapless neckline to hem; and papery silver “solar” taffeta billows like clouds on a floor-length gown. Posen booked the photographer Steven Sebring and the model Winnie Harlow to capture the clothes in the round. Together in Sebring’s 360-degree photo studio, the three of them have produced their own sort of ballet.Posen typically drapes on the stand. This season he did some of his early design work digitally, “torquing and twisting” and exaggerating shapes, some lifted from his earliest collections, others including that highly sculptural shift dress modeled on recent red carpet numbers (see Deepika Padukone at the 2019 Met Gala). Less extreme but still quite striking were the silk duchesse shells he showed over chiffon negligees. “Soft armor,” he called them, “feminine but ferocious.” And versatile, too. The shell and dress can, of course, be worn separately.Another separate worth mentioning is a pair of navy sailor pants that Posen originally made for the Broadway producer Jordan Roth for the opening night ofMoulin Rouge! The Musical, one of his first commissions for a man. Roth gave the designer his blessing to add them to the line—sadly forMoulin Rougefans, the extravagant windmill cape he also created for the occasion didn’t make the cut. Fashion has a tendency to forget about designers when they leave the runway, and Posen hasn’t put on a show since early 2017. But he hasn’t stopped experimenting—a fact Harlow’s 6.5 million Instagram followers will glean when she starts posting Sebring’s 360-degree pictures this week.
3 September 2019
In 2017, Lindsey Wixson announced she was leaving the modeling business. A foot injury meant her catwalking days were behind her, but her retirement has proven short-lived. In flats and low heels, she posed for Zac Posen’s new Resort collection, shot by Vanina Sorrenti. Not only that, Wixson also styled the shoot, picking the pieces she liked best from Posen’s extensive lineup. “It’s important to nurture aspiring talent,” the designer said, adding that he appreciated Wixson’s fresh perspective. “She put together separates and chose parts of the collection that I don’t regularly shoot, that I consider more ‘commercial,’ ” he explained.The resulting lookbook has a freer, more whimsical aspect than usual. It’s evocative of a woman’s closet, with pieces chosen on impulse rather than strategically to tell a seasonal story. Wixson’s eclectic choices point up Posen’s broad range. There’s tailoring in a vaguely 1940s vein, strong-shouldered and full-legged. There are cotton frocks in crisp white and flirty Liberty florals. There are even interesting handknit sweaters, with drop shoulders shot through with Lurex.As diverse as his offering is, Posen’s heart is in eveningwear. It was well on display at the Met Gala, where Jourdan Dunn and Nina Dobrev modeled innovative 3-D printed dresses made in collaboration with GE, like moving sculptures. Here, he focused on softer pieces, though they hardly lacked his signature drama. Wixson played up that aspect on the collection’s two standouts. The first was a Watteau-back cape gown in midnight ombré silk jacquard, both grand and easy at once; the second: a stricter, but still flamboyant evening coat in luscious peony pink silk moiré.
21 May 2019
Zac Posen’s lookbooks have lately starred Maya Thurman Hawke or Katie Holmes, but why settle for one icon when you can have a group of them? For fall, the designer cast a range of beauties, from ’90s supermodel Elaine Irwin to his youthful goddaughter Lennon Buchet. “They’re women in my life that inspire me,” he said at the Michael Avedon–lensed shoot. The multigenerational nature of the cast was absolutely the point. “I dress all ages of women,” he added. “Diversity is beauty.”The young and the less so turn to Posen when they need a statement-making gown. He dressed Julia Garner in turquoise taffeta jacquard at the SAG Awards last month and Laverne Cox in red silk charmeuse at the National Board of Review. There are Oscar contenders in his new lineup, to be sure, though he pointed out that more and more actresses and celebrity stylists are requesting one-of-a-kind dresses that have never appeared on a runway or in a lookbook. He also noted that the phenomenon puts a strain on small labels, even ones with ateliers in-house like Posen’s. In any case, lucky would be the starlet who got to make her grand entrance in the midnight blue plissé-flocked tulle.Considering the relatively small number of women who have red carpets to walk, Posen gave equal emphasis to his daywear here. Pleated jersey separates obviously echoed the occasion frocks; ditto the pants that he cut so wide, they rivaled his ballgown volumes. More unusual for Posen, and also compelling, was a cozy, long-sleeve cable-knit dress. Jacqueline Schnabel’s high-waisted men’s trousers were a likewise chic surprise.
7 February 2019
After turning away from the runway a couple of years ago, Zac Posen has made a point of coming up with novel ways to present his collections. Typically this has involved whom he puts in front of the camera: Katie Holmes one season, and Maya Hawke (Uma’s daughter) another. For Pre-Fall, the news is behind the camera. Tiffany Godoy, who launched the Instagram-azine The Reality Show earlier this year, took these images. Though they appear in still form here, Posen’s 1.6 million followers will see collaged video clips in The Reality Show style, which showcase the engineered three-dimensionality of his work—as well as the dapper designer himself, as he interacts with model Cindy Bruna.That body-enhancing engineering is the quality that has made Posen a stalwart of the red carpet. With awards season approaching, this collection is tilted toward event dresses, but there’s a notable softness where he once favored structure. A midnight blue silk jacquard number (look 26) boasts elegant rosette draping at the neckline that Posen said took him many months to get just right. It’s a romantic, elegant beauty. At the opposite end of the spectrum is a grand apricot-color duchesse satin ball gown with flower embroideries, and a strapless style in icy silver with delicate pastel paillettes decorating the bustline and hip that seems sure to make an appearance at one awards ceremony or another.Simultaneous with his move off the runway, Posen has worked assiduously to diversify his offering. Suiting, knitwear, and Liberty-print cotton frocks are dependable parts of the mix now. The prettiest piece for Pre-Fall is an ankle-length Liberty-print dress with a ruffle tracing the neckline. It gets the prize for best dressed wedding guest.
1 December 2018
The star of Zac Posen’s Spring 2019 collection is a strapless long dress of ombré jacquard taffeta with “no stuffing,” meaning none of the crinoline undergirding he often uses to create his grand ball gown volumes. It could go anywhere: the red carpet, a summer wedding, a swimming pool. Well, maybe not a swimming pool.Maya Hawke, the 20-year-oldStranger Thingsactress who stars in Posen’s new lookbook, did take a dip in one of his cotton Liberty-print dresses, and at a showroom appointment last week, it was no worse for wear. The jacquard taffeta is too dear for chlorine, but the way Posen handled it wasn’t precious. Generally speaking, that’s the appeal of this latest outing—the absence of stuffing. Hawke plays it up: She lolls on an unmade bed, frolics on the beach, and lingers over breakfast in the new collection as if she were wearing pj’s, completely at ease. The photos—which were shot by Gia Coppola, another Posen friend—are likely to charm a young audience when Posen starts streaming them to his Instagram feed, and possibly persuade others, who have known the designer longer, to look beyond his familiar red carpet fare. They’re certainly more evocative than your standard runway-show pics.Posen played up his daywear via summer tweed separates. We’re not talking cutoffs and T-shirts, but the mood was definitely new. Elsewhere for day, he emphasized his cotton shirting and dresses, including a shape-shifting muumuu-style cover-up. There was also a bombshell maillot lined in power mesh, a Posen first if memory serves. As for the red carpet material—the Emmys are September 17, he reminded us—the best of it leaned ingenue: the ombré taffeta, as previously mentioned, but also a princess gown in peachy point d’esprit and a sweet empire line frock in three cheery pastel layers of delicate lace.
4 September 2018
Zac Posen has been on 40 planes since January 1, laying the groundwork for the imminent launch of his Delta uniforms. It’s a project with global scale. He’s designed kits for upwards of 60,000 of the airline’s employees, from flight attendants to the ground crew and all posts in between. Everything had to be stress tested, and as for sizing, it’s a whole lot more complicated than the department store standard 0 to 12.All that is to say, the project has been no flight of fancy. You could even argue that the three years he’s been working on it have made him a different kind of designer. There’s a certain orderly strategy to his ready-to-wear collections now, everything categorized: crepe suiting, clingy compact jersey dresses, high evening tulle, et cetera. (Then again, that could just be a side effect of no longer showing on the runway.)What was exciting about his new Resort collection was seeing him venture off script with a magnificent gown in ombré silk jacquard featuring voluptuously draped sleeves and fraying details at the shoulders, which he described as having a new “in construction” quality. There was an appealing freedom to it, an almost, but not quite, sense of letting loose, though Posen insisted that the inside was just as pristine as anything his atelier ever makes. He also promised more along these lines for Spring 2019.Elsewhere the surprises were more minor yet still pleasant. The charming Liberty-print dresses that until now have only been available in Sea Island cotton are coming in a sweet washed silk. And a va-va-voom-y party dress not unlike the knockout that Karen Elson wore in his first independent show in February 2002 made an appearance. Said Posen, “It’s been a while since we’ve done a dress like this in silk faille.” It was good to see it back.
21 May 2018
Zac Posen met Katie Holmes over french fries at a mutual friend’s birthday party at the Empire Diner. Not long after, he was over at her place making Saturday night spaghetti, and not long after that she was wearing his clothes on the red carpet. They’ve been each other’s dates at two Met Galas. Now, she’s playing model in his Fall collection.As designers move away from formal runway shows, booking A-listers for photo shoots has turned into a big thing. Rodarte’s Kate and Laura Mulleavy enlisted a pregnant Kirsten Dunst and watched as their picture of her accompanied “baby bump” stories everywhere from this website to the Daily Mail. Posen’s dramatic photos of Holmes are likewise destined for news feeds and social media streams. It’s a clever PR strategy. And models better watch out, they could lose lookbook shoots to actresses the way they lost magazine covers a decade ago.At the photo shoot two weeks ago, Holmes volunteered, “It’s inspiring to collaborate. I really respect and admire the work and precision that goes into every piece.” She’s got it right about Posen. There’s a sense of occasion inbuilt in his designs, his red carpet fare most of all. This season, his innovation in this area involved modular pieces; his grandest dresses in silk faille were shown with voluminous accompanying capelets suitable for opening night at the ballet or the opera, or maybe the Met Gala, where drama is celebrated and embraced—less so the awards show circuit with its fashion police.Smashing, but in a lower key, was the bias-cut purple silk velvet gown with slit sleeves. Posen is never going to be a go-to designer for Saturday night dinner at home, but he’s done well by diversifying his offering these last several years, so there was also a stretch jersey group and more of the charming Liberty print frocks that have become reliable, affordable sellers for him.
8 February 2018
Zac Posen has no show on the New York Fashion Week schedule, but he does have a movie premiere.House of Z,a documentary tracking the ups and downs of his early career, is available to rent onVogue.comas of today. A week or so from now, he’ll debut his Fall collection at Dallas’s Crystal Charity Ball, where clients, not critics, will line the front row. Posen is a living and breathing example of a fashion system in flux, and, yes, he’s taking it in stride. A cookbook with his name on the cover comes out in October.All that is to say, his colorful new lineup was presented in his studio, not on the runway. As his work evolves, the studio is an increasingly good place to take it in. Flamboyance may have been the calling card of his youth, but here the charm was to be found in the delicate, three-dimensional floral embroideries on crepe tea dresses with flutter sleeves—see: Kate Upton in Look 15. He did similarly winning dresses in polished cotton. Together they conjured images of a more innocent time, or at least a more decorous one. A few pieces here and there failed to capture the appealing lightness of those frocks—for example, the fancy corset top and city shorts of Look 29. Evening—no surprise—brought plenty of drama. Awards season is around the corner, Posen was quick to point out. We can picture Upton’s embellished, off-the-shoulder pink column on the Emmys red carpet.
6 September 2017
While rifling through the racks before the Thanksgiving holiday, Zac Posen said he designs Pre-Fall with one eye on awards show season and the other on “building and rebuilding on what’s performing.” There’s nothing unexpected about seeing his name linked with the red carpet, but the building and rebuilding notion was interesting. Posen is a craftsman; he drapes on the dress form. That’s not unheard of among his New York peers, but it becomes rarer as the city’s ranks are filled with streetwear practitioners and athleisure labels. In the case of a cowl-caped brocade dress here, he explained that he “dissected” a significantly heavier ball gown from a previous outing. The modified version is still plenty grand, especially when you compare it to the T-shirts and tracksuits of his NYC counterparts, but its less demanding silhouette seems well keyed to the present moment.How should a designer so closely associated with eveningwear (not to mentionProject Runwayand a new cookbook, his current side projects) wrestle with the ongoing casualization of fashionable wardrobes? Posen’s silk jersey program continues and produced a desirable three-quarter-sleeve dress with pin-tucking at the bodice. He’s also had success with his Liberty print cotton frocks in recent seasons, so he made slight modifications to former hits in fresh floral patterns. A long dress with spaghetti straps and deep asymmetric ruffles looked especially winning, but the Liberty print top he layered over a turtleneck knit and tailored city shorts was less convincing. Some of the tailoring looked quite heavy. The takeaway? Experimentation is productive, necessary even; nonetheless, this collection was best when Posen was being Posen. Case in point: a corseted and beaded evening number in a vivid shade of light green inspired by the Fauvist artist Kees van Dongen’s palette. Discussing the dress’s vibrational hue, the group settled on “electric celery.” Yes, you’ll be seeing that on a red carpet soon.
4 December 2017
A documentary about Zac Posen’s early career premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April. It charts the rise and fall and subsequent redemption of an early-aughts New York fashion wunderkind. Circa 2017, Posen is all grown up; he’s publishing a cookbook in October, for goodness sake. But the guy can still have his fun. See the frolicking cat print on a charming 3/4-sleeve, twist-neck dress. It’s silk crepe, but it takes its relaxed cues from the easy cotton Liberty-print frocks that have been selling so well for him for a few seasons now. There are more of those Liberty prints for Resort. Cut to the knee, they’re office ready; ankle length, they’re wedding guest material. Posen’s got the bride covered, too, with an elaborately worked off-the-shoulder hourglass number that descends into a frothy mermaid hem.The news here was the way Posen continued to expand the casual aspect of his offering, specifically with a new range of going-out tops. When it gets right down to it, pieces like the tulle-embellished button-down—“very Lynn Wyatt,” he said, referring to the Texas socialite—aren’t all that casual, but they suit more occasions than his statement gowns. And presumably, with their nice prices, Wyatt types can collect them by the dozen.
2 June 2017
Where were you in February 2002?Zac Posen, a New York Fashion Week upstart at all of 21, was putting on his first show. Karen Elson, Erin O’Connor, and a high schooler named Jemima Kirke vamped down the runway; Barbara Bush, then daughter of the President, sat with secret service in the front row; and Zac took his bow in a white tie and tails. Fifteen years later, it’s a different world: Posen has cycled through ups and downs and ups; Kirke, now an actress, co-stars on a hit TV show, and we have new First Daughters. Times change, but Posen still has the “fierce devotion to the female form” my predecessor wrote about at his debut.He showcased it tonight at a 15th anniversary party-slash-photo exhibition of his new Fall collection at his former Laight Street headquarters. It was a homecoming; he left the Tribeca studio for an atelier and office space in midtown near Brooks Brothers, where he’s the creative director of womenswear. That appointment says it all about how Posen has evolved in the decade and a half since he started: The balance between fantasy and practicality is more even now.That’s not to say the clothes modeled in Vanina Sorrenti’s beautiful photos of Carolyn Murphy, Jourdan Dunn, Lindsey Wixson, and co. were mundane. The tilt here was decidedly dressed-up, and the photos meant the workmanship was exposed in macro. A gown made of velvet ribbons sewn together lengthwise erred on the belabored side, but that was an outlier. More often Posen let his sculptural draping do the talking, or sculptural draping coupled with floral thread embroidery on technical mesh. His cotton Liberty print dresses continue to be popular, so he’s introduced new prints and silhouettes. Also in the offing: a new line of shoes with a 1940s vibe. Posen played it cool in a cable sweater, jeans, and a newsboy cap, sandwiched between Naomi Watts and Susan Sarandon. Times change, but the important thing is that fierce devotion.
15 February 2017
Zac Posencalled his new Pre-Fall collection a “review” of the last one and a half years or so. Two Septembers ago Posen set about rethinking the look of his clothes. The first decade of his career was marked by drama, on the catwalk and off. He hasn’t out and out rejected the red carpet fare he’s famous for, and why would he? He’s one of fashion’s most Hollywood-savvy designers with aProject Runwayside gig, and, he reports, A-list stars who actually order his clothes rather than borrow. (That’s rarer than it should be in a moment when celebrity stylists have become demi-celebrities themselves.) When it comes to his collections, though, Posen has softened up and loosened up and otherwise dialed down the extravagance he was once synonymous with.That fact came across most clearly for Pre-Fall in his cotton micro-floral Liberty print dresses. A floor-length number with twisted shoulders was a particular delight, cotton being such an unexpected material for such a soigné style. Elsewhere, printed crêpe de chine dresses in vaguely ’40s silhouettes called to mind Posen’s circa-2001 debut, but chalk it up to the wisdom of age or simply listening to customer feedback, he’s swapped his youthful experimental flamboyance for wearable flirtation. There were stretch jersey dresses and moiré silk short sets as well, which were easy to wear in their own unique ways.As for the red carpet, a zingy yellow pouf-skirted gown shared the racks with more streamlined styles cut from surgical mesh and embroidered with multimedia paillettes. It was a take-your-pick situation, and the embellished surgical mesh options looked the fresher, modern choice.
2 December 2016
Before revealing his Spring collection on this temperate New York City eve,Zac Posensaid: “Fall [currently in stores] has been a great season.” Feeling emboldened by its success, he decided to start his new lineup from a fundamental (though not always as obvious as one might think) inspiration point—his customers.“We took the feedback from our retailers into account,” he said, before he mentioned “playing with surface details” as a subsequent tactical approach. What followed was a supersaturated, topographical concoction of both day- and nightwear, with as much of a waking-hours inflection as Posen’s ever suggested. The designer even did a booty short—though it was a done-up one. He called it a “brass berry lily jacquard wrap short.”“We took the signatures of our gowns, in terms of anatomical seaming, and brought that into more day looks. Taking it to motorbike pants, the moto jackets, and so on,” he said. The Perfectos were actually pretty smart—Posen’s clients will buy them, no doubt, especially an arctic white tricotine version, and double especially when paired with a matching white top and circle skirt.Sometimes those “anatomical” seams made for overly complicated silhouettes, like dresses that had architecturally floating hemlines, suspended away from the body. Nonetheless, the crowd was enthusiastic; Uma Thurman rose to give a standing ovation during Posen’s bow.
13 September 2016
Zac Posenhad one of theMet Gala’s most on-point dresses. Worn by the very gameClaire Danes, it was a Disney princess gown whose glow came not from sequins and beads, but LED lights. His new Resort collection featured a few event dresses of similar proportions—one grand example was a red taffeta number with sleeves attached to its generous skirt—very fairy tale. For the most part, however, Posen created a more grounded collection of day suits and sheaths, even the occasional pair of culottes.He was looking at art and photographs from Vienna’s Wiener Werkstätte. The movement’s graphicism played out in a check pattern. Kudos to his atelier, which went to great lengths to get those horizontal and vertical lines perfectly matched along the darts and seams; not a lot of studios in New York are up to that task, nor do our contemporary designers tend to emphasize such old-school details. It makes Posen a bit of a fashion loner, outside of trends. Not that it seems to bother him. There was the Met Gala win, and he’s also busy with Brooks Brothers andProject Runway. And while most of us were indulging in hamburgers on the grill this Memorial Day weekend, he was testing and retesting recipes for his first cookbook, due out in fall 2017.
1 June 2016
“Where were the gowns?” asked a first-timer atZac Posen’s show tonight. Red carpet fare is Posen’s claim to fame; he hadKatie Holmes, Jennifer Hudson, and newcomer Odeya Rush dressed to the nines in the front row to remind us. But on the runway, the event dresses went missing. “There are 50 gowns in the showroom,” Posen reassured us backstage. The designer has been keen to diversify lately, shifting attention to his more relaxed evening attire and daywear. You’re never going to see a tracksuit chez Posen, but he had plenty of tailored pantsuits this season. They came in a substantial wool flannel, and in deep jewel shades with conspicuous buttons. Think gala luncheon, not board meeting.The collection was divided into three categories, which Posen intermingled on the catwalk. In addition to the colorful suiting, there was a large group of black draped silk dresses. They twisted around the torso, fluttered at the shoulders, and fell to mid-calf in asymmetrical, paneled hems. A few were trimmed in glinting jet beads; and Posen layered one over a pair of loose-fitting trousers. By the end, these felt repetitive, but they proved his point: He knows his way around more than a corseted dress. The most unexpected part of the show were the Liberty-print cotton frocks. In the past, informal clothes haven’t come naturally to Posen, who has always had a flair for the dramatic. But he did his darndest here to inject these dresses with a summery breeziness. The collection ships in the summer, so it was a savvy move.
16 February 2016
With awards season around the corner,Pre-Fallis a good moment to roll out red carpet fare, especially for a designer likeZac Posen, who specializes in event dresses. There were some of those here, the best a somewhat restrained black gown with a dramatic arabesque of silk on one shoulder, the most grandiose in emerald green tech duchesse with a skirt of pleated godets better suited to a museum show than an awards ceremony.The news was the way Posen continued to push his repertoire in multiple directions, experimenting with his tailoring on the one hand, and on the other, playing around with sundresses in Liberty floral prints. The trapeze-shaped dresses had a bohemian, even latter-day flower child aspect—a real surprise chez Posen. You won’t be seeing them at the Golden Globes, but it’s a good bet they’ll be making the rounds at next summer’s weddings.Suiting got a fair bit of the designer’s attention. In the case of a floral jacquard that was treated to a splicing and folding treatment that the studio dubbed the “Braque technique” for its evocative cubist patterns, perhaps too much attention. A Le Smoking with asymmetric lapels maintained some of that Braque-like experimentation, but came off more effortlessly.
7 December 2015
It’s been a big week forZac Posen. First camehis diffusion line presentation, which featured an LED dress he made in partnership with Google. After that, hisdebut collection for Brooks Brothers. Tonight, in front of Amy Schumer,Christina Hendricks, Jennifer Hudson, and Bella Thorne, he took over Grand Central’s Vanderbilt Hall with a signature collection that was surprisingly free of many of his signatures. Beforehand, Posen said, “It’s important for us to keep it exciting. We’ve had so much red carpet, it got to the point that I wanted to give a proposition for my friends and customers during the day.”Enter a black cotton sundress that, paired with Christian Louboutin skimmers and a top-handle bag, conjured St.-Tropez in the ’60s. It was positively breezy, and while the clothes didn’t remain quite that low-key, when he inevitably turned his eye to evening, Posen approached it in a new way. Without any of the engineered, hourglass seaming he’s famous for, his long dresses had a more relaxed sensibility. For surface interest, he tacked floating seams with bugle beads. “One hundred percent harder” than sewing a normal seam, he said, fingering a tuxedo that featured the couture technique.A guipure lace dress with a stiff yoke that extended a couple of inches above the model’s shoulders failed to evoke the ease Posen was after, and at the other end of the spectrum, a hand-crocheted top and skirt looked too crafty. But missteps aside, Posen did a commendable job here of extrapolating on his strengths and growing his repertoire. A special shout-out for a staple seam camisole and matching pants. It may not be fancy enough for the Emmys, but one of those ladies should snap up the outfit for an after-party.
15 September 2015
Here's a little summary of everything Zac Posen has going on at the moment: a new deal to design Delta Airlines uniforms for 60,000 employees; a gig as Brooks Brothers creative director of womenswear (his first collection will make its debut in September); a long-standing role onProject Runway; and not one, but three collections bearing his name—Zac Posen, a lower-priced ZAC Zac Posen line, and Truly Zac Posen, a bridal offering. He also played chaperone to Maya Thurman-Hawke, eldest child of Uma and Ethan, at the CFDA Awards on Monday night. How he found the time to design the Resort collection he presented today is anybody's guess, especially considering that Posen keeps pushing into new territory.There was a time we all remember when Posen was Mr. Drama; every gown seemed to come with horsehair crinolines and every suit with a boned corset. Somewhere along the way, though, he softened up. More often than not, the clothes he showed this afternoon were cut away from the body. Posen mentioned a photograph of his great-aunt dating to the early part of the 20th century: "She was in men's clothes," he said. The old picture gave him the zoot suit proportions of his suits. If his dresses did hug curves, they did so a little less insistently than usual. Nearly every look—day, night, short, knee-length, and long—was accessorized with flats. It didn't necessarily work in the case of a too-long wrap skirt, but the impulse—to emphasize ease—was appreciated. As for high-drama evening gowns, in the end there were the two. The first was strapless and column-thin in a floral brocade, and the second, grand in midnight blue silk. Both of them looked terrific.
3 June 2015
Half the point of a Zac Posen show is the spectacle. This time around he took over Grand Central's grand Vanderbilt Hall (thankfully, on a holiday, or imagine the commuter outrage), then added an appearance by a positively ladylike-looking Rihanna (where's the fun in that?). The show closed with Posen and Naomi Campbell doing their best prom king and queen walk up and down the entire length of the runway. It was a little bit like watching an amusing movie about fashion.Except that somewhere amongst all that, there were some pretty good-looking clothes that showed Posen is thinking about the businessandthe red carpet. "I draped most of the clothes myself on the weekends, so it's very personal," he said preshow, possibly referring to the hours he keeps at his other gig as creative director at Brooks Brothers. "I wanted to find a balance between the elegance of Grace Kelly and the fierceness of Chaka Khan," he said. So, glamour meets attitude? There was that in a cinched plum fur chubby and pencil skirt; a dandified cashmere coat, cardigan, and bonded trouser; or a snug secretary-style sweater tucked into a sequined skirt. There were also a ton of wearable day looks: swingy jersey dresses in black, plum, and orange, and those skinny pants that, if you can fit into them, make legs look perfect. And the gowns—these were obviously primed for Oscar season, especially a beautifully simple cinched column with vertical green bugle beading, and a minimalist-leaning teal jersey gown worn under a gray cashmere coat. Before the show, Posen sounded proud that he only did one ball gown, and rightfully so. Even though it was worn by the never-aging Campbell, its glitz and volume felt out of step with the lovely gowns that preceded.
16 February 2015
Zac Posen has just moved studios, up from his longtime space in Tribeca hard by the entrance to the Holland Tunnel to the tonier and more corporate environs of Fifth Avenue and 54th Street. Brooks Brothers, where Posen signed on as creative director last summer, is not far away, and he lives in Midtown now. The designer's center of gravity has shifted, and there was a noticeable change in his Pre-Fall collection. Call it a new softness. His clothes are as body-aware as ever, but he's chosen materials with a relaxed ease. Jersey knit clings without all of the seams required to get the same effect out of the evening fabrics he's tended to prefer all these years. A long dress in a navy and black micro floral with a scooped "Martha Graham" neckline was particularly striking, but he also used the stuff for a charming, knee-length day dress that will find a lot of takers. Perforated silk in jewel tones, another new material chez Posen, was a little less compelling. As usual, evening was where Posen really shined. A bonded satin crepe cape-back gown with cutouts at the shoulders in the mauve-ish shade that Pantone has just named the 2015 Color of the Year (a total coincidence, the designer insisted) is begging for one statuesque celeb or another. Posen was in the news after posting a pic of Rihanna's visit to his new space on Instagram, but he wasn't telling which looks she has her eye on. The winner in our book was a covered-up printed chiffon gown with buttons down the bodice and a frill of ruffles at the hip.
8 December 2014
An hour before his show, Zac Posen tucked himself into one of two linen chairs in his unfinished new office on 54th Street and Fifth Avenue. The walls, including those in the showroom that served as a runway, were still Sheetrocked. Team Posen moves in next month, and they couldn't control their excitement about the new address: They clearly take their cues from their leader.Posen is one of the most cheerful, hardworking fellows in New York. In the last few days, he has already shown his ZAC Zac Posen collection and filmedProject Runway. And from the way he mentioned "dialogues with retailers" in regard to his main collection, it's clear his Spring brief is to find that sweet spot between art and commerce. And he's up for the challenge. "At the end of the day, we're here to sell clothes," he said.About those clothes. Posen wanted to find a balance between classicism and sexiness. He mentioned there would be more separates, a general toning down of volume and amping up of ease. He delivered on that promise with the starting white pantsuit in neoprene-bonded crepe with a molded peplum detail, and the subsequent snug black and white eyelet day dresses that nipped at the waist. White, black, and red were his only colors, and each was shown tonally. That way, "you can concentrate on the tech construction and cut of the clothes," said Posen. Indeed, up close, his tailoring was terrific, as was his enthusiasm for subtle touches of drama like a high-waisted bustle cocktail dress or gowns with Brancusi-like curves and stiff contours. While some of the gowns were too restrictive and hard to walk in, all of Posen's ideas seemed to come together in the final look, an ivory guipure gown with starburst embroidery. It was optimistic, sweet, and had a touch of bridal glamour (down to the Truly Zac Posen diamond engagement ring the model was wearing).
8 September 2014
Filming for the next season ofProject Runwaybegins next week, Zac Posen reminded us at his Resort appointment today, right after he pointed out his new optical range. The designer has been keeping busy growing the reach of his brand on television and in stores. We know we'll be tuning in if and when he gets a TV project about #CookingWithZac off the ground. But expansion is just one aspect of the current Zac Posen story. When it comes to the clothes themselves, he's dialing down and further refining the message of his Fall show. Here, too, he was eager to emphasize his serious dressmaking chops; frivolities and excesses have been pushed to the side. "Clean and streamlined" were the words he used, and they were apt descriptors of a cocktail number and evening dress made from neoprene and cotton ottoman, both in subtle neutrals. The cotton ottoman looked especially fresh; it'd be just the thing for an invitation that calls for daytime black tie. On the more effusive side there was a draped cape-back column gown in a striking coral red and an hourglass, off-the-shoulder sheath in navy and black jacquard. A green-and-red brocade jacquard looked stiff and stuffy by comparison, but Posen was thinking along more modern lines when it came to his finale. A paper taffeta skirt gave his grandest ball gown an effortless swish.
10 June 2014
The press preview for the Metropolitan Museum of Art costume exhibitCharles James: Beyond Fashiontook place on Monday morning, and those who attended could certainly see the couturier's influence on Zac Posen's Fall collection when it was shown in his Tribeca studio a few hours later. "He's one of my favorite designers," Posen said of the legendary James. "This collection came down to exactly what he was about: focusing on a level of discipline and craft."To emphasize his refreshed attention to good, clean work that shows off his abilities in draping, pleating, and overall garment construction, Posen presented just 25 looks. To start, there were seamed skirtsuits in mélange tweed. The construction was precise, although the hem of the skirts might've been taken down an inch or two for slightly more modern proportions. There were also day dresses—most notably a blue mélange tweed style with a mini cape that curved around the arms beautifully—as well as black double-face wool coats with voluminous backs that added the good kind of drama. But it was really about the gowns. The narrow, off-the-shoulder style with architectural flutter sleeves in stretchy rose-colored duchesse satin felt youthful and alive. The strapless seafoam green number, with a skirt so wide it grazed knees on both sides of the aisle, proved that extreme volume can be done without looking garish. And who could forget the slate blue gown with a high neckline? It was made for Fall party season.Posen is a special designer: His talent was recognized and lauded early in his career, but he doesn't fit into the mold of many of his contemporaries. His collections are grounded in the silhouettes, not directional trends or ideas. He is at his best when he blocks out the noise of the outside world. "I want to be able to offer women something very special," Posen said. And with this collection, he did.
10 February 2014
Zac Posen dialed the drama of his recent runway show way back for Pre-Fall. The designer remains as committed as ever to after-eight dressing, but the focus here was on cleaner shapes.Simple,though, isn't the right word for them. The bodice of a cocktail number in an over-embroidered black organza was engineered from what could've been dozens of pieces of fabric; it fit the model like a glove. A long strapless dress in amber duchesse satin, meanwhile, was constructed with just two pairs of darts, at the bust and the hips. That meant that the side seams were invisible, tucked into the folds of a train. There aren't many New York ateliers capable of that kind of workmanship, and there are even fewer designers who would bother with such a thoughtful detail.With the Costume Institute's Charles James retrospective on the horizon, Posen made sure to showcase his gowns. A strapless style in a platinum-to-teal ombre was every inch as grand as one of James' creations, with a critical difference: lightness. The late couturier might have balked at an evening column in tropical wool men's suiting fabric, but Posen has a winner on his hands with that one, ease being a major part of its appeal. He used the same material for a smart pantsuit, a relatively rare but decidedly welcome sight chez Posen. This was a well-considered outing, one that points the way forward for his brand.
4 December 2013
It was announced last week that Charles James will be the subject of next year's Costume Institute show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. James was sometimes called America's first couturier; he's remembered now for his spectacular ball gowns, immortalized in photographs by Cecil Beaton. If James has a spiritual descendant, it's Zac Posen, whose devotion to occasion dressing is immune to trend. New York is thinking along sporty lines for Spring; other designers Posen's age are vibing on the 1990s. Posen, for his part, borrowed his color palette and floral prints from the Impressionists; his muse this season was Sarah Bernhardt.More power to him, right? Unfortunately, this wasn't one of Posen's finest moments. Backstage before the show he said he would be presenting "conceptual evening," and described it as "more sculptural" than usual. Exuberant doesn't begin to describe the layered organza and tulle layers of a strapless party dress, or the pronounced shoulders of an architectural draped evening jacket in floral jacquard. Some of the softer dresses, too (in double-face white satin or rose hand-dyed draped tulle), were constructed with a flamboyance that felt out of step—not just with other runways, but also with the red carpets for which most of them are intended. Admittedly, the silk flowers in the models' updos and the harsh lighting weren't doing Posen any favors.He was on much firmer ground with a comparatively simpler hand-plisséd strapless cocktail number in yellow—all of the plissé dresses were lovely. An ultra-fitted peplum jacket worn with a fishtail skirt struck a similarly modern note. Ball gowns will be in the spotlight at the Costume Institute next May, but these are the kinds of things we hope to see the next time Posen gets on the runway.
7 September 2013
Zac Posen was plastered all over the front page of theNew York Times' style section this Sunday in a piece about his business peaks and valleys. Thanks to a primetime position onProject Runway, and perhaps more importantly, to his business team, the designer has been enjoying a prolonged upswing of late.This Resort collection should keep the buoyant mood afloat. Posen explored the softer side of structure, adding draped ruffles and overlays to his signature anatomical-seamed construction for results that felt more romantic, less aggressive than his work sometimes tends to be. The floral-print chiffons he used surely played a part in that.This isn't to say, though, that Posen abandoned his flair for the dramatic. On the contrary, there were evening showstoppers galore, be it a draped peplum-top strapless cocktail number in a soft shade of peach (modeled expertly by Pat Cleveland; "I'm breaking the lookbook age barrier," Posen joked), or a bustier mermaid gown in palest gray with a matching net overlay. Exuberance is Posen's stock-in-trade, but to this editor's eye, at least, restraint could turn into a growth area for the designer. An hourglass dress in sea-moss scuba-stretch duchesse looked great. Ditto a long-sleeved shirtdress in delicately ruffled navy chiffon.
3 June 2013
There were tourists lined up on the steps of the Plaza tonight. It's not clear if they were waiting for a glimpse of Katharine McPhee, who sat front row in the hotel's Terrace Room for Zac Posen's show, or for the designer himself. Now that he's onProject Runway, Posen's becoming a celebrity in his own right. To capitalize on it, he's launched a new contemporary brand priced between Z Spoke and his signature collection that incorporates his name, Zac Zac Posen, not unlike Michael Michael Kors.No confusing his Fall show with a diffusion line. Posen focused less on evening gowns with his famous anatomical seaming than he usually does on the runway, favoring evening separates and a surprising number of pants, but the clothes were nonetheless loaded up with detail: soutache embroidery, origami draping and folds. Some of the familiar complaints lobbed in Posen's direction applied: Here and there the cuts looked stuffy and old. But he also had some good ideas, in particular a fitted peplum top in rust-colored duchesse satin that zipped in the back, taking the place of a jacket, and other versions of the same thing in stretch felt or velvet.Posen has been enjoying an uptick in red carpet credits lately. It's too soon to say if it's related toProject Runway, but there were a handful of showstopping gowns here—a strapless bustier number in lapis, bias-cut orchid-colored chiffon, and most of all, a citrine stretch duchesse style with gold soutache embroidery—that won't do anything to slow down his winning streak.
9 February 2013
"Maria Callas going to Argentina" is the précis Zac Posen gave his pre-fall collection. He's never been one to shy away from drama, and the dresses and gowns in this lineup delivered on his reputation. Whether he cut them in duchesse satin or silk faille ottoman jacquard, they were intricately constructed. The best of them—we're thinking specifically about a strapless aubergine style with a bow detail at the bust—did wondrous things for the models' forms: instant hourglass. Posen used the wordsanatomicalandarchitecturalto describe the season. He approaches his designs almost like an architect would, adding fiber optics to organza and tulle, for example, so that the lightweight fabrics hold their extravagant volumes.But every night isn't a night at the opera. Clingy knit dresses delivered some of the same va-va-voom in a more approachable, everyday material, and he used black leather for the first time for a skirtsuit. It didn't look quite as utilitarian as he indicated, but it did have an edge that felt new for him.
10 December 2012
Naomi Campbell, Angela Lindvall, Karolina Kurkova. They all walked in Zac Posen's show this evening, and the supermodels weren't the only things vintage. The music was popular standards like "Moonlight Serenade" and "Sunday Kind of Love," and the pacing was practically glacial. The weather cooperated, and it was a beautiful night on the terrace of Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall; but the designer wasn't doing himself any favors on the production front. It's too bad if people went away cranky, because he put together a lovely collection.The clothes also had a retro patina, but if some of the skirtsuits looked stuck in the 1940s, other numbers were pleasingly old-school. The sweetheart-neck, patchwork floral day dresses that Lindsey Wixson and Marihenny Rivera Pasible modeled would be an easy sell with the street style set—why haven't those peacocks discovered Posen yet? After dark, a silk crepe evening jumpsuit and a tulle bustier worn with flared wide-leg satin pants moved the proceedings forward a few decades to the Studio 54 era. Most of the designer's attention, though, was focused on gowns, and one thing he's learned over the years is that timeless plays on the red carpet. So does color—the color story here was gorgeous. You could picture either Gwyneth Paltrow or Grace Kelly nabbing the best-dressed prize in Posen's jade green duchesse satin and tulle strapless ball gown.
8 September 2012
There's plenty to marvel at during a Zac Posen preview: the acres of bordeaux tulle on a halter gown, the obsessive attention to detail in the curving pleats on a pencil skirt (how many hours did a seamstress toil over those?), model Anna Cleveland's old school sashay. But what's most remarkable is the fit. Posen's hourglass-enhancing dresses can turn even the most angular of mannequins into sex bombs. His lookbook shoot with the androgynous Erin O'Connor is proof positive of that.Since returning to the New York scene from Paris a year ago, Posen has zeroed in on eveningwear. He says it's paying off at retail, where sell-throughs have been "unbelievable." But dressy skirtsuits and other separates also got their fair share of play in his new Resort collection. A pintucked chiffon and washed organza blouse and pleated high-waisted pants had a smart, retro-modern look.Posen built options into a long-sleeved black day sheath. Its cowled neckline could be worn pulled down, exposing the shoulders, or up for a more demure look. A pretty violet gown with one manipulable sleeve had the same kind of versatility. Ultimately, it's the drama of these frocks that makes them desirable, but that kind of considered practicality has its appeal, too.
11 June 2012
Ten years ago to the day, Style.com covered Zac Posen's first big New York show. Our reviewer then said that his dresses "pushed the notion of glamour to the extreme." That's not a bad description of what he did tonight at Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater with a new collection of sculpted skirtsuits and gala gowns. Posen has had his fair share of ups and downs in his decade-long career. He's in the midst of another reinvention, one that's found him focusing on what's called "occasion dressing" in the biz. It was fitting that Dita Von Teese—a woman who turns every outfit into an event—was posing for photographers from her perch in the front row.Posen gave his Fall collection a Japanese theme. There were peony jacquards, Tokyo reds, and Imperial blues on his program. One model carried a bejeweled, pagoda-shaped minaudière. For the most part the craftsmanship was unassailable, but the dressiness of the clothes tended to come off old-fashioned and costumey, especially on the outfits that featured oversize obis in kimono prints. The audience, however, did perk up a few times toward the end: an alabaster jacquard cocktail number and a gold duchesse satin bustier dress with a blossoming skirt had a simplicity that gave them a youthful kick. As for drama, nothing beat a strapless silk faille gown in midnight blue.
11 February 2012
Zac Posen is coming up on his tenth anniversary in business. His first decade as a designer has been full of highs and lows, but he's definitely on the upswing after a Spring collection that marked his return to New York fashion week after a year-long decampment in Paris. Pre-fall finds him in continued good form, making the most of his gifts as a dressmaker. On the simpler side: a white wool crepe sheath with anatomical seaming designed to diminish your waist, and a little black dress with bold shoulders that have the same slimming effect on your mid-section.On his mood board were Lee Radziwill (now) and Jackie O. (then), along with a host of other images pointing to his current obsession with chinoiserie and the idea of creating European couture shapes out of Eastern fabrics. That meant that the collection's less simple pieces were quite ornate indeed. Among the highlights: a fits-like-a-glove olive green bustier dress with colorful floral silk embroidery, a to-the-floor stretch velvet backless column with matching shoulder-length gloves to match, and a China-red bow-front blouse worn with a ball skirt in claret (evening separates were a request from his retailers). A couple of the grander gowns would require your own footmen, but Posen made up for those potential excesses with the welcome return of a few of the bias-cut dresses he did back in the day.
7 December 2011
The terrace of Avery Fisher Hall as dusk descended over Lincoln Center was the grand setting Zac Posen chose for his return to New York fashion week. The designer famously left his hometown for the City of Light a year ago, declaring, in so many words, that a Paris audience would understand his clothes better. That turned out not to be the case. But this prodigal-son story has a happy ending. He neither overplayed nor tempered his creative instincts today, as he had in his first and second seasons, respectively, in Paris. On the contrary: The well-executed dresses and gowns he put on his runway tonight reminded some in the audience of the designer's early-aughts glory days.Posen focused on cut and fit—the more precise, the better. If corsets aren't your friends, ladies, this designer is not the man for you. With the accent firmly on the waist, he paired narrow, elongated jackets with high armholes with pencil skirts, and whipped up party dresses with flaring, knee-length hems. Some of his jackets read a bit too Old Hollywood, and a couple of the gowns were too hobbling, but young Hollywood will be charmed by a lot of what was on display here. Among the mermaid gowns, a midnight blue cord-embroidered sleeveless top and matching evening skirt stood out for the way the look said, "I'm an ingenue," rather than, "I'm a diva." We all know Posen can bring the drama; insouciance could turn out to be a growth market for him.
10 September 2011
More, more, more is the usual marching order at Zac Posen. For Fall, he clipped his wings a bit, but you couldn't help feeling that the effort cramped his style. So for Resort, he's back to bigger-is-better exuberance, the poe-faced be damned. Luxury was the word he hammered home. Twists and lattices of taffeta crossed bodices and jacket sleeves but hewed close to the garments—"crushed couture," Posen called it. Not that every piece kept a close circumference. Posen's gowns are more wasp-waisted than ever, but several—including the blood-red showpiece Posen likened to a Charles James—explode at the hems into frothy tiers of cascading cloth.Loyal fans—like Posen's lookbook model, Coco Rocha, and longtime pal, Josephine de la Baume, whose wedding dress he's designing for her August nuptials to Mark Ronson—will be glad to find their friend restored to his former pomp. For those who appreciate the more streamlined Posen, there are the consolations of silk faille trenches, flaring pencil skirts, and suiting newly developed in Italy, in leather-trimmed tweed.
6 June 2011
Zac Posen is back in Paris for the second season, but he's changed things up since September, restructuring his company and stripping his clothes of a lot of the feathers and furbelows that threatened to smother them the last time around. He took a similar approach to the diffusion collection he showed in New York a few weeks ago to positive effect. There, he said, "we're moving into a more streamlined identity of my original language." The question here is, if you lose the drama, what's left of the Posen DNA?For one, his signature nipped and tucked waist. When you shed all the extras, silhouette is what remains, and you can clock one of Posen's hourglass dresses from across the room. He showed them in long sleeves and strapless, the raciest with a black crocodile bustier. And he can still cut an evening dress to drive celebs wild; the gray and navy ombré mermaid numbers will land on one red carpet or another in the not too distant future.He sniffed out the Fall trend for skinny cropped trousers. As for the rest of his daywear, the cavernous space and the slow pace of the show are probably partly to blame, but it was difficult to rouse much excitement for it.
2 March 2011
After a Spring collection that hadZac Posenin show-off mode—a change of venue from New York to Paris will do that to a guy—pre-fall finds the designer back in the territory he staked out a decade ago. His corseted dresses don't exactly skimp on drama, but the bells and whistles have disappeared; the overall effect is much cleaner, not to mention a whole lot sexier. In a strappy leopard-spot style or a more covered-up sheath in a Venus flytrap print by Rosson Crowe, it'll be his customer's curves that do the talking—not distracting feathers or cutouts. His tailored pieces have likewise been stripped of a lot of the superfluities of recent seasons. It doesn't get more streamlined than his collarless, zip-front, black ponyhair coat. Laser cutting at the hem of a peacoat has replaced heavy embroidery.The irony is that this pre-fall outing took its inspiration from the French interior designer Madeleine Castaing, whose romantic, neoclassical style flew in the face of mid-twentieth-century modern style. You saw a bit of her trademark wit in a sweater featuring a cameo by Posen's poodle, Tina Turner. For the most part, though, Posen seems quite serious about designing a retail-friendly collection (he's got a new president, late of Carolina Herrera, to help); those body-conscious hourglass dresses have dollar signs written all over them.
13 December 2010
Having shown his new contemporary collection, Z Spoke, at home in New York, Zac Posen decided to present his signature line in Paris. Gutsy move. The competition here is nothing if not formidable; then again, Posen has never been a shy guy. Today, he not only chose a venue where Yves Saint Laurent famously used to show, but—further upping the ante from his Fall collection, which had a focus on daywear—he turned his attention almost exclusively to evening.After opening with some smart tweed jackets with puffed shoulders and stand-up collars, the designer wasted no time getting to cocktail hour, and that's when all the black lace, feathers, and fur kicked in. The vibe: showgirl boudoir. Posen's signature silhouette hasn't changed; it's still nipped and paneled at the waist, but cutouts are part of the sexy mix for Spring—and that meant there was a lot going on, sometimes too much. The pieces that will make it into the closets of his party-set fans—and onto the red carpet—were the least fussy, like a vibrant red silk dress with a swirling, draped bodice, or a black ombré silk gown with a spray of feathers on each shoulder. Subtlety has never been Posen's MO, nor are we suggesting it should be, but it wouldn't have hurt if he'd picked up a few pointers on chic simplicity from Monsieur Saint Laurent.
29 September 2010
Just before his informal show today, Zac Posen told us it was official: He's taking his signature line to Paris, making this the last time he presents it in New York. (Come September, he'll put his lower-priced Z Spoke range on the runway during his hometown fashion week.) "It's important to take risks," the designer said, adding that Resort was a chance to further define what distinguishes his designer-priced wares from the less expensive ones. This season, it's double-faces, bouclés, and transparent crepes, plus lots and lots of faux pearls. Cecil Beaton meets Cicciolina, he described it.Posen watchers will recognize the silhouette—the long sleeves; the pieced, pleated, and tucked torso; the flaring skirts—but the combination of those fabrics and a Jordan almond pastel color palette made this one of his lighter, less fussy collections in a while. Anna Cleveland's ivory chiffon dress was a charmer, as was the short-sleeved lilac organza gown she modeled. Posen will have his work cut out for him impressing the Paris fashion week crowd, but he wants to build his international business, and who can fault this risk-taker for ambition like that?
8 June 2010
A recentNew York Timesarticle put the spotlight on Zac Posen's recession-induced financial woes. It hasn't been easy for a still-smallish business like his to survive the great retail panic of the last 18 months. In that, of course, he's hardly alone. Today, Posen was back at the modest Altman Building for a second season in a row, and clothing-wise he seemed to be cutting back still further for Fall. There wasn't a single gown on the runway. That must be tough for a designer in love with ball skirts and shoulder flourishes, but in their absence, he injected more than a fair bit of showmanship into the sportswear; colorful furs; and short, flirty party dresses that were this upbeat collection's focus.Posen gave his pantsuits a forties flair, putting contrasting cuffs and lapels along with strong shoulders on cropped jackets and pinning a brooch to the waistbands of his full-legged, fluid trousers. There was also a sweet little ice-skating dress in dove gray jersey with a silk wool skirt. If he's still trying to establish an identity for his daywear and not exactly succeeding, Posen is much more confident when it comes to evening. This season he's thinking short and pink, because, hey, wallflowers aren't his type. In New York, at least, the recession hasn't really managed to put a dent in the late-night scene. His corseted minidresses will find happy homes indeed with the party-hopping set.
14 February 2010
With recent developments like his lower-priced Z Spoke line and a Go International collaboration with Target, Zac Posen is feeling upbeat, and it showed in a vibrant pre-fall collection the designer described as "Lewis Carroll meets Paloma Picasso." TheAlice in Wonderlandpart—a very popular fashion reference these days (presumably because we could all use a little escapism)—came through via Rosson Crow's prints. A pair of striking black swans decorated the hem of a red velvet column gown, and sweet running bunnies and toadstools dotted georgette dresses and intarsia sweaters. As for the Paloma influence? That was evident in the seventies-ish silk bow-front blouses, flaring trousers, and pleated knee-length skirts, not to mention the models' painted red lips. As always, the collection had a serious theatrical streak; Posen's basics came in carnation red and neon pink. But we can't think of a girl around who wouldn't like a little drama in her life in the form of the designer's black and ivory strapless crepe marocain gown.
3 December 2009
Much has been made about Zac Posen moving his show from Thursday night to Monday morning—at 9 a.m., no less—and leaving Bryant Park's big tent for the modest-in-comparison Altman Building. Whether it was because of financial pressures or because, as the designer explained, the smaller venue was better suited to the collection, it worked. As they say, change will do you good: Posen's clothes felt more youthful and looked like a lot more fun to wear than they have lately, starting with the opening series of little color-blocked dresses, some with sassy cutouts. Pieced together from shades of blue, the best of the bunch dipped low in front and came with a flirty flared skirt. He called it a twist dress, and you could picture some pretty young thing kicking up her heels in it on a crowded dance floor.Posen remains a social guy at heart. There were a few suits, and while they didn't exactly look like afterthoughts, party clothes are where he really shines. For Spring, he played with prints both small-scale—on a sexy, asymmetric-neckline cocktail dress in a tiny pebble pattern, for example—and large (a tiger designed by downtown artist Rosson Crow looked ready to pounce off a man-killer of a halter gown). Here's one advantage to the 9 a.m. time slot Posen may not have envisioned: Now his social butterflies have time enough to call something in for tonight's round of parties.
13 September 2009
Zac Posen eschewed the forties-tinged Victoriana of his Fall collection to focus on more modern, real-world clothes. It was a sensible move. Taking "clean shapes" as his MO, he touched on everything from simple yet sexy stretch canvas sheaths to tops and wrap skirts in mix-and-match floral prints to jersey button-downs and ruched satin pants in hard-candy colors. He displayed a similar restraint for evening, showing a white tux over a corseted wedding tank dress, as well as a dramatic smoking. But Posen can't resist a little nighttime drama and neither can his fans, so there were plenty of party frocks, too. The best, a strapless number in a subtle black and white tire print with chain detailing, took its cues from American couturier Pauline Trigère.
31 May 2009
Zac Posen is nothing if not a showman. For Fall, he enlisted the 5 Browns—a brother and sister piano troupe—to play on five Steinways arrayed down the middle of the runway, and he sent out a collection of forties-inflected Victoriana. "They were both times of sculpting clothing," he said a few days before his show. Focusing mostly on dresses, sculpt is what Posen did: grand Joan Crawford shoulders, pouf sleeves, ruffles at the hips, and great swags of fabric pooling on the floor at the models' feet—in notice-me fabrics like metallic jacquards, violet moiré silk, double-layer floral prints, and a gingersnap plaid.Off-key? Many would say so. Posen has had some fabulous red-carpet successes lately, most notably Kate Winslet in a figure-hugging black floor-length number at the BAFTAs. There was a time in the not too distant past when he put that kind of attainable glamour on his catwalk. But too often these days he errs on the side of melodrama. That said, there were some appealing pieces. Alek Wek's gray wool cap-sleeved day sheath and a Venetian blue silk gown with a draped bodice and a bare back both struck the right note.
18 February 2009
Saying that he hoped his show would inspire during challenging times, Zac Posen returned to the flirty, forties-inflected clothes that are his signature—and, as it happens, recall the look that was popular at the end of the Great Depression. For day, there were trumpet-skirted suits in sober wools, though Posen might prefer his customer play it carefree in a groovy eel-skin trench and leopard dress. The collection was heavily populated with little dresses—cocktail frocks embellished with swingy fringe and body-hugging knits. Posen kept the serious evening dramatics to a minimum, making them highly viable choices for the long red-carpet season ahead.
4 December 2008
Zac Posen's show is always a scene. Tonight, he had Schnabelpère et fillein one corner, Claire Danes and Jada Pinkett Smith in another, and Venus Williams and Serena Williams smack-dab in the middle—everywhere you looked there were flashbulbs popping. In seasons past, Posen has displayed a deft hand for tailoring, but that wasn't his focus here. Instead, there were mostly dresses with a few minis and suede biker jackets thrown in aimed at that other kind of 9-to-5er: the type who makes a business of party-hopping.The viability of some of the frocks was dubious at best. Was that padding underneath the first Perspex-plated dress, or had Raquel Zimmermann suddenly put on a few extra inches around the hips? And how, exactly, is a girl supposed to sit down wearing all of that hard plastic and metal on her backside? But underneath the extensions, frosted lipstick, and shoulder-duster earrings were some leopard-print dresses that have a red carpet in their future.
10 September 2008
Transforming your showroom into a country club, complete with a grass tennis court, is one way to express how important the season is to your business. Another is to pack your collection with a wide range of clothes (150 pieces!) addressing women's multifarious wants and needs for resort. Posen did both of the above, sending out an array of looks that zigzagged from garden party florals and crisp tennis whites to easy Grecian evening dresses. A colorful group of pieced cottons with grommeted trim were intended, the designer said, for the girl "who goes to the country club and listens to her Bow Wow Wow." Undoubtedly, Posen knows many.
1 June 2008
If last season's criticized Shaker collection was going to teach Zac Posen anything, it might've been this: to dial down the ebullience. But that's not what happened at his Fall show, which both referenced Minnie Mouse and invoked a bordello. The models wore pompoms on either side of their tight chignons, and many of the dresses were sheer enough to reveal spangled underwear and black garter belts. After-dark options edged out daywear by a wide margin, which was too bad, because the most elegant piece here was, hands down, a herringbone-tweed sheath, and it would have been great if the focus had been more of the same. That isn't to say eveningwear is a bad thing, but crinolines—which he showed under a robe à la française and a mini-parachute dress—are quite another story.Posen cut all of the sugar and spice with great tailoring, some of it in a soft-quilted cloque that his program notes dubbed "bubble wrap." On the harder side, a Prince of Wales schoolboy suit looked signature—it was curvy and fit like a glove—but it didn't have quite the sex appeal of a plunging Le Smoking jumpsuit.For the first time, he brought out his sister and creative director, Alexandra, for a post-finale bow. It seemed a strange disconnect, because so much of this collection looked designed not for grown-up women (ones with jobs) but for living dolls.
6 February 2008
At the beginning of his 22-piece pre-fall presentation, Zac Posen announced his theme: "poodle ballet." It was less strange than it sounds. The flaring, short silhouette of a little black dress was a key look, as were nubby, woolly textures like the Mongolian lamb that edged the collars and hems of cavalry twill jackets or the bouclé used for a matching sweatshirt and skirt. The latter combo was billed as a casual take on the suit, and ease was the unifying principle here—something, Posen said, he's also working on for his Fall collection. But that's not what the designer's built his business on, so there were plenty of evening options as well. These ranged from a pink satin strapless minidress all wrapped up like a bow to a flaring gown in wine red Lurex not unlike the resort number that Beyoncé poured herself into for Sunday night's inauguralMovies Rock.
3 December 2007
"Days of Heaven, the Shakers, and the wheat fields of the Great Plains" seem unlikely inspirations for a designer as urban as born-and-bred New Yorker Zac Posen. But there they were, staring up from the front page of his program notes. So it was with an elevated level of curiosity that his audience members—at least the ones there to conduct business; Posen has many boldface pals—awaited the beginning of his show.First up was a long black vest with pants and a white shirt, accessorized with a wide-brimmed straw hat perched atop the model's head; it was followed by a halter dress with diagonal tiers of pleats and ruffles. Not such foreign territory for Posen, whose twin talents for tailoring and dramatic eveningwear are well documented in the celebrity weeklies. What was new was the big-sky romance of a white prairie dress rethought as a fitted gown; it had a softness that Posen's more overtly sexy work lacks.By the end, though, he had strayed into dangerous pastures. He closed the show with five dresses—four of them long or extra-long; one strapless, short, and bubble-hemmed—that were as poufy as storm-whipped clouds. These were more than a little showy, a country no-no. The Shakers, after all, didn't believe in elaborate details or added decoration. Six-foot trains are one thing, but those staffs of wheat rendered in rhinestones were an inexcusably literal interpretation of the designer's chosen theme.
10 September 2007
"It's about creating desirability," said Zac Posen, outlining the motivation behind his resort show. "There's nothing too theme-y about it." The models' berets put some in mind of Faye Dunaway's getups inBonnie and Clyde, but the clothes themselves ranged from casual cruisewear (short shorts with ladylike blouses, sassy tennis dresses) to city slickers in plastic-coated cotton to full-on red-carpet looks, the best of which was a clingy electric-green column with a flaring mermaid hem below the knee. Always popular with young Hollywood, Posen has seen his star rise even higher with the celebrity set of late, and there was plenty for A-listers to choose from here. Standouts included a pair of jersey dresses that had been color-blocked and pleated to showcase his ladies' toned curves.
8 July 2007
This season the young-designer-struggling-to-find-a-voice has become a mini-theme, so Zac Posen¿s focused Fall show was a reassuring development. In his five-and-a-half years on the runway, the 26-year-old has made a signature of forties-inflected tailoring. And today there was a new polish to his suits, evident in their strong lines—some jackets had nipped waists, others flared capelike from the shoulder. A coat that was all collar, and a fur with ruffles—never the best idea—were rather less reliable. But a tweed day dress was a winner. With curving seams piped in black patent, it was cut to smartly maximize his model¿s hourglass potential.When it came to eveningwear—Posen¿s first love—he reined in the exuberance that can sometimes get him in trouble. Still, he couldn¿t resist a statement gown or two—this season Agyness Deyn was charged with pulling off the requisite show-closing dress with the stiffly voluminous skirts. But Posen mostly stuck to slimmer silhouettes in body-loving stretch silks and colors that the camera adores. These—unlike some of the more showy pieces—have serious red-carpet promise, and the crowd ate them up.
7 February 2007
Before his show, Zac Posen said that his jackets and suits have surpassed dresses in sales—but as it turned out, he didn't follow the money for spring. Yes, there were some strong-shouldered blazers and high-waisted pants, plus a sailor jacket with a tulip skirt, but the focus here was on his first passion, evening. Exhibit A: an emerald-green bias-cut silk column inspired by his beloved 1930s that was drop-dead gorgeous.Posen, however, is not a one-dress kind of guy. Instead, he wandered giddily—a little too giddily, at times—across the after-dark map. A thigh-grazing showgirl number with an explosion of peonies at the hem and a ballooning gown cut from what he playfully called "Esther Williams jacquard" were two of the show's extremes. But there were plenty of other big statements in between, some more successful (navy silk with fringe below the knees; a bubble dress in shocking pink) than others (the over-the-top red gown with an outsized sash protruding from the back, for starters). A tighter edit wouldn't have hurt. On the other hand, there are a lot of red carpets to stroll down these days, and the Eves, Emmys, and Kates in his front row want to arrive in something that hasn't been photographed on everyone else. That's why Posen's their man.
13 September 2006
From the very first look—a navy peacoat with outsize shoulder pads—you could tell things were going to be different chez Zac Posen. Gone were the frills, the flou, the colors, and in their place were nipped waists and flaring short skirts (thank you, Azzedine Alaïa), as well as the aforementioned shoulders (merci, Thierry Mugler). Posen isn't the only designer riffing on those eighties icons of late, but he's done it with the most authority, and it was somehow fitting that he had that contemporary glamazon, Uma Thurman (the biggest celebrity coup of the week so far), in his front row.In the past, Posen has shied away from daywear; practical matters just didn't gel with his take-no-prisoners design aesthetic. His new velvet knit blazer and skirt are certainly office-ready, though, even if there's nothing tame about them. The same goes for the sexy secretary's white umbrella-pleat blouse and navy pencil skirt. For evening, Posen turned out one hourglass silhouette after another, in silver lamé, black faille, and embossed leather. Despite some out-of-step looks, such as two shapeless shifts midshow and a trio of grandstanding finale gowns, this was a strong outing for the designer. Fashion's It boy is growing up.
8 February 2006
There's enough of Zac Posen to go around. He's teamed up with Seven for All Mankind to create a deluxe denim line and launched a veritable wild kingdom of an accessories collection, heavy on the python, stingray, and lizard. Apparently, his primary collection hasn't suffered from the diversions, because Thursday, he put on the most mature show of his still-short career. "Picture a woman on a trip to Sardinia with her much older boyfriend," he said backstage. "It starts with a walk on the beach and ends at bedtime, in the clouds." Sounds dreamy, and it was, from Carmen's bubble-sleeve jacket, blouse, and cuffed shorts to Shalom's jade-green and gold goddess dress.It's true that there weren't a lot of looks that will work for the office, but that's not what the Park Avenue set and Young Hollywood want from Posen. They're not likely to choose his tie silk dresses, either; the silhouettes were young and fresh, especially Tiiu's halter style, but the pattern was much too busy. Instead, sexy knits drew the biggest response. A crochet number got an especially big cheer from Diddy (his business partner) and his posse. Summery whites, some in the season's must-have eyelet, were hits. And big-time ball gowns, of the "I'm a designer to be reckoned with" variety, have grandeur and enough Posen-style drama for aspiring Scarlett O'Haras.
14 September 2005
Those ice sculptures installed at the back of Zac Posen's runway? It's a wonder they didn't melt, what with the star wattage on hand—show regulars Claire Danes and Sean Combs, a co-owner of Posen's company, turned up, as did Ashley Olsen, Bette Midler, Russell Simmons, Jay-Z, and Foxy Brown.They saw a fall show in which Posen zeroed in on Hollywood's glamour years, turning out bias-cut liquid silk columns in shimmering pastels, and (paging Joan Crawford) bubble-sleeve blouses with hip-loving skirts. He also showed a fair amount of drapey goddess gowns, some embellished with golden coils at the neck and waist. On the more constructed side, an emerald strapless moiré silk dress demonstrated his hourglass fit, while a pleated charmeuse number in slate gray showcased his talent for pattern making.Posen's alpaca coats seemed oddly informal next to all that flash, and he didn't show much in the way of daywear compared with his efforts for spring. But that's not what his people come for: The leaner and loucher a gown was, the louder the claps from the Combs-helmed cheering section.
9 February 2005
Zac Posen is entering a crucial and tricky territory in any designer's career. He's no longer the new guy, but he hasn't quite gotten to the established phase yet. He's a nightlife fixture, but he's also a serious businessman with an investor partner (that would be Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, who bought part of Posen's business in April). And he's laid claim to a design aesthetic so specific he runs the risk of self-parody.But so far, so good. The spring collection, called Trinity (and sponsored by Cartier), showed Posen capable of handling all that and then some. The look he chose to open the show spoke volumes: a simple white jacket over tailored trousers, instead of one of his famously pieced and fitted dresses, that seemed to declare, "I can do sportswear, too." He followed that with a group of clean white pieces like pencil skirts, knit dresses, more trousers, polo shirts, and a trench (done Posen-style, with lots of tiers). Then came the vivid colors and pretty dresses so beloved by the party girls—like the chain mail, argyle dress that Karolina Kurkova had swinging down the runway. Were there a few sour notes? The orange fantail coat and the patchwork-and-pastiche dresses needed to shed some of their excess. But Posen proved himself again with the palate-clearing closer—a trio of elegant black evening gowns, each ornamented with a billowing cloud of a cape that had even this jaded crowd oohing in admiration.
9 September 2004
To provide a backdrop for his fall collection, titledBlixen(as in reindeer), Zac Posen carpeted the floor of a Bryant Park tent with black Astroturf and installed a grove of silvery tree sculptures. Of course, Posen’s audience is its own decor (this season it included Claire Danes and the artist Chuck Close), but the designer is a born showman and he loves to set a stage.He’s also, five seasons into his career, developing real range, not to mention an inventive sense of color and solid craftsmanship. His signatures—the neckline that arches chinward and then plunges deep into the décolleté, the hourglass fit, the mitered stripes—were all present and accounted for. But there were new developments, too: Posen worked in a lot of jersey and knits, which softened his edges and produced some lovely looks, like a pink cashmere dress or a charming black knit T-shirt, trimmed in blue ribbon and worn with a simple black pencil skirt. Even the pieced geometric dresses in contrasting hues fell on the wearable side of artsy.The designer’s evening showstoppers included a figure-hugging polychrome lace sheath, a fluttery pin-tucked organza dress, and a dreamy blue organza ball gown. It may have all been based on fantasy, but Posen produced a real-life wardrobe that goes from morning coffee straight through to the last nightcap.
11 February 2004
He’s not just a one-hit wonder, after all. In a lovely and lively Spring collection, Zac Posen showed he can move beyond the hourglass diva dresses and turn out some seriously pretty clothing.Posen’s whole silhouette eased up as he worked in lighter fabrics like charmeuse and chiffon, and in a classic pastel palette of lilac, petal pink, pale green, and shimmery gray. Skillful tailoring showed up in short jackets artfully seamed to curve in at the waist, and a delicate touch was apparent in pieces like a halter dress suspended from a single, thin twist of fabric. Still in evidence were handkerchief-point hems on a few short dresses and skirts, as well as a few of his signature mitre-stripe gowns. It’s clear that Posen has been taking notes during his many appearances on the social circuit: His eveningwear, like a silvery sequined dress or a flame-red chiffon gown, will certainly delight the cocktail-and-gala crowd. And indeed, the whole show had a distinct sparkle, thanks to the $30 million worth of Harry Winston gems (on loan, of course) the models were sporting.Lest his audience might think he’d lost his costume-y sense of humor, Posen also sent out two dangerously flammable outfits made from raffia—inspired, perhaps, by the wild Philip Treacy wigs on show at Manolo Blahnik’s current New York exhibit.
17 September 2003
The Pool Room at the Four Seasons. Nerve center of the global power-broker network, icon of luxurious modern design, mecca for the rich and famous—and the site of Zac Posen’s third show. Yes, he’s come a long way from the dark, drafty former synagogue on the Lower East Side where he made his debut.Well connected, socially visible and—most important—possessed of a distinct design sensibility, 22-year-old Posen has become one of the week’s hotter tickets. That, plus the major sponsors he scored this season (Swarovski, L’Oréal, Belvedere vodka and Shiseido, among others), perhaps explains how he got one of the city’s most prominent restaurants to shut down for the night, and every major model including Naomi Campbell and Helena Christensen to report for duty. And although the show started nearly an hour late, Posen’s fall collection delivered a pretty, if sometimes repetitive, message to the A-list crowd (Claire Danes, China Chow).Judging from the location and the backers, Posen’s interest in business is growing, and he’s developing new breadth in his collection as a result. He showed more daytime clothing, like slim tweed pantsuits, cotton piqué shirts, delicate blouses made from shredded, mitered strips of voile, and some great coats (a coppery trench with an oversize capelet top; a cheerful hooded jacket whose fur trim ran over the head and down the spine, ending in a tail). But while Posen was more sparing in his use of signature touches like bias draping, handkerchief hems and meticulously pieced skirts, his glee for glamorous eveningwear is unquenchable. He used a map-printed silk crepe for fluttery halter dresses, draped Christensen in a beautiful purple satin gown and sent Alek Wek out in a Vegas-worthy “dress” made from strands of sparkling rhinestones worn over a black thong. The Pool Room has never looked so good.
12 February 2003
Zac Posen is entering the make-or-break stage of his career. Is the fortunate 22-year-old just a savvy dilettante whose well-connected friends are happy to wear his offbeat clothes? Or is he truly a major talent, flowering at an enviably early age? New York is hungry for a new star, and the designer’s hype machine has been running full tilt. Produced by fashion's power-PR company, KCD, Posen's show featured hot models (including a rare appearance by Naomi Campbell) and an even hotter front row (Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore).But onto the clothes. Posen's chosen aesthetic is ’40s Hollywood, exaggerated and punked-up. He loves to bind the female figure with sculpted strips of cloth that form angular patterns, often with a three-dimensional flourish, at the shoulders and neck. In his fall show, that treatment bordered on camp, but the designer wisely toned it down for spring. The siren dresses aimed at his fabulous friends were still in evidence, but so were soft skirts and pretty printed chiffon blouses, which were clearly meant to send a signal to all the big-league retailers sitting in the front row. Only time will tell whether the designer can continue this evolution, or whether he's a one-trick Posen.
18 September 2002
How hot a ticket was Zac Posen's first independent show? Hot enough to get major models to walk the runway, Manolo Blahnik to do the shoes and first daughter Barbara Bush to sit in the front row. Even more impressively, the 21-year-old New Yorker lived up to the hype, delivering a strong, if not terribly commercial, message.But then Posen is not aiming to be the next Ralph Lauren. His inspiration is '30s fashion—the sort of outfits Jean Harlow might have sported at a cocktail party. Pushing that notion of glamour to the extreme, Posen built his collection around dresses, mostly bias-cut with provocative necklines, which declared a fierce devotion to the female form. The designer incorporated '30s design elements like contrasting insets, fitted bodices, fluttering ruffles and fishtail trains, and used movie-star fabrics like satin and crepe, but also worked with cotton, leather and mesh. (While many of the looks were entrance-makers, there were also some quietly wearable pieces, like a blush mesh top and a long, mitred tweed coat.) And in a week of muted, monochrome palettes, Posen's 32 looks were a riot of color: orange, purple, blue and yellow, along with the occasional black and white.The models, including Karen Elson, Eleonora Bose, Liberty Ross, Teresa Lourenco and the actress Paz de la Huerta, were clearly given a mandate to act up, and they did, vamping for the cameras like seasoned starlets.
11 February 2002