NEW YORK—The practical gave way to the regal at Zac Posen’s latest collection showing during New York Fashion Week. The tight silhouettes of the tweed two-piece suits and dresses were followed by 1930s cinematic below-the-knee dresses. The hemlines then extended and started to flow; among them a petrol-blue long sleeve dress complete with cape was deceptively simple yet imposing.
But then the skirts exploded into no-holds-barred gigantic, even rococco proportions with barrel pleats to rival the flying buttresses of Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral. A blue-green gown didn’t just evoke architectural proportions but barely had enough room as the model walked down the runway.
The equally imposing slate-blue gown with a high neckline and simple short sleeves is most likely to be worn by a celebrity as it caters to the modern aesthetic, but somehow, in a hard to pinpoint way, it also has a classical elegance done a la Zac Posen.
Embellishments of any sort were nowhere to be seen, but the sheen of the silk duchesse satin provided an unforgettable luminosity just fitting for the intense limelight of the red carpet.
“This was all about elegance,” Posen told The Associated Press in a post-show interview. “It was about line and form. I had to be disciplined. It was a tight edit.”
The collection is deceptively simple. One of the sleeveless pieces in black satin has a futuristic feel to it with an oval-shaped bustline that curved upward toward the neck with fabric overflowing near the arms into a short train that ends at the heels.
Posen understands that imposing sculptural effects should never impose to the point that the body and personality of the wearer are engulfed. He walks this line with great sensibility and never crosses it. Perhaps this is why he is such a unique designer.
Above all, what reigns is the female/woman/diva.
