Zac Posen called his new Pre-Fall collection a “review” of the last one and a half years or so. Two Septembers ago Posen set about rethinking the look of his clothes. The first decade of his career was marked by drama, on the catwalk and off. He hasn’t out and out rejected the red carpet fare he’s famous for, and why would he? He’s one of fashion’s most Hollywood-savvy designers with a Project Runway side gig, and, he reports, A-list stars who actually order his clothes rather than borrow. (That’s rarer than it should be in a moment when celebrity stylists have become demi-celebrities themselves.) When it comes to his collections, though, Posen has softened up and loosened up and otherwise dialed down the extravagance he was once synonymous with.
That fact came across most clearly for Pre-Fall in his cotton micro-floral Liberty print dresses. A floor-length number with twisted shoulders was a particular delight, cotton being such an unexpected material for such a soigné style. Elsewhere, printed crêpe de chine dresses in vaguely ’40s silhouettes called to mind Posen’s circa-2001 debut, but chalk it up to the wisdom of age or simply listening to customer feedback, he’s swapped his youthful experimental flamboyance for wearable flirtation. There were stretch jersey dresses and moiré silk short sets as well, which were easy to wear in their own unique ways.
As for the red carpet, a zingy yellow pouf-skirted gown shared the racks with more streamlined styles cut from surgical mesh and embroidered with multimedia paillettes. It was a take-your-pick situation, and the embellished surgical mesh options looked the fresher, modern choice.
