There were tourists lined up on the steps of the Plaza tonight.
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There were tourists lined up on the steps of the Plaza tonight.
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 on Project 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 to Project 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.