Storm Irene: Zac Posen

Thursday, June 30, 2011

ZAC POSEN RESORT 2012

ZAC POSEN RESORT 2012

COCO ROCHA (ELITE)

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.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Zac Posen Spring 2010 RTW.

Vlada Roslyakova

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.

Irina Lazareanu

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.

Maryna Linchuk

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.

Elsa Sylvan

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.