Zac Posen

get alerts about this designer get alerts about this designer

Zac Posen is one of Manhattan's most popular boys-about-town—and the girls-about-town flock to him for sultry, body-hugging, thirties- and forties-inflected party frocks. The old-Hollywood glamour of his evening looks makes them a natural choice for pretty young nominees on the Other Coast, too: Natalie Portman, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Beyoncé have all made the trip down the red carpet in a Posen showstopper.

With all this, it's easy to forget that Posen isn't some old hand: He was born in 1980. But he is a native New Yorker and has benefited from the support of his sophisticated Soho family (his father is a painter, his mother—now the company chairman—is a corporate attorney, and his sister, Alexandra, is his creative director). Posen won a coveted internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute (where he got a good look at the dazzling bias work of Madame Vionnet), and then headed to London to study at Central Saint Martins. In typically precocious fashion, a dress he made there was chosen to become part of the permanent collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Posen returned to New York in 2001 and almost immediately was making himself known at Gen Art's Fresh Faces show. Offers from LVMH and the Gucci Group followed, but with equally typical bravado, Posen ignored them and launched his own label. Three years later he received the Swarovski-Perry Ellis Award for Womenswear from the CFDA, and the rest, it would seem, is party-dress history.

ALL ON STYLE.COM
ARTICLES
VIDEO

FASHION SHOWS (23)

Pre-Fall 2010

reviews and complete collections

December 4, 2009 12:00AM

  1. All Seasons

  2. Ready-to-wear

  3. Resort

  4. Pre-Fall

RELATED ARTICLES (3)

more related articles ›

Style.com

Style File Blog

february 09, 2010

Social intelligence

Postcard From Hong Kong: 48 Hours With Rare Vintage’s Juliana Cairone

05:02 PM
Rare Vintage owner Juliana Cairone (pictured) recently jetted off to Hong Kong to curate an...

Designer update

First Look: The YSL Manifesto Tote

04:02 PM

Q&A

What Made Balenciaga Balenciaga, And Other Intricacies of Spanish Fashion

02:02 PM

more from the style file blog ›