We’ve entered a new phase of Zac Posen. The New Yorkiest of New York designers is without an eponymous brand for the first time in almost 20 years, with Brooks Brothers becoming his sole fashion design outlet for the moment. What that meant for America’s oldest clothier is a collection with a renewed focus on suiting, sporting, and the suave look of the ’70s. On moodboards in Brooks Brothers’ office were images pulled from pages of vintage Vogues, advertisements for Nan Duskin, and Charlotte Rampling in a safari jacket and perfect Left Bank hair. The ’70s were, of course, the time when fashion was Fashion, when one trend could dominate a continent, and when women were trading their infantilizing miniskirts for power flares and mannish blazers. All this played out expertly in Posen’s collection, with just the right balance of rust-colored hunting jackets and Annie Hall-ish plaids.
Perfecting the fit of Brooks Brothers’ clothing, or modernizing it, has been one of Posen’s ongoing missions. This season he really shone in that area. In the lookbook here, Sailor Brinkley-Cook proves that even an ivory suit with ladylike scalloping can look cool on a 21-year-old. Ditto a ditsy floral dress, an embroidered sweater, or an emerald slim suit paired with a baseball cap. There’s a for-all-ages, for-all-occasions appeal to what Posen does at Brooks that, perhaps, was what was missing at his nighttime-only eponymous brand. But comparing the two doesn’t really serve. Instead let’s focus on what’s new: A tomato hunting jacket worn over a fuchsia jacquard party dress. The Brooks shopper is definitely going to need both; props to the one that styles them together.
