For spring, Zac Posen’s Brooks Brothers woman was vacationing in Nantucket. Come May, when Pre-Fall hits stores, she’ll have packed up her breezy separates and traded the coast for college. “She’s a late ’60s Sarah Lawrence girl,” mused Posen at the Brooks Brothers showroom. Garry Winogrand’s snaps of nonchalantly elegant New Yorkers in the ’70s also served as an inspiration.
The new collection, spanning a roomful of racks, is Posen’s second effort since taking the role of creative director at Brooks Brothers in 2014. And though the adage warns that you can’t be all things to all people, Posen and Brooks Brothers are sure going to try. “You have to be directional and you have to design into categories that are necessary,” he said. “And that doesn't feel like a compromise.”
This season, the staid Brooks Brothers customer will enjoy many structured day-to-night options in ponte or double-faced wools. For the new prep, a Margot Tenenbaum–ish pleated skirt suit in muted eggplant or a denim trench with rolled belt will serve. Even a bohemian could take a liking to a silk dress in an exclusive Pierre Marie print or a vermilion zebra-print sweater. Most women could find something to like in Posen’s lineup, but the question is how to get the younger, more fashion-savvy customer to consider what was once a bastion of prep-dom and a cool place to shop. Step one is casting model Maria Borges fresh off the Victoria's Secret runway in Brooks Brothers’s lookbook and upcoming campaign.
