Zac Posen

Zac Posen (born October 24, 1980, New York, New York, U.S.) is an American fashion designer best known for his glamorous evening gowns and cocktail dresses.

Posen was raised in the SoHo neighbourhood of Lower Manhattan. His father, Stephen Posen, was a painter, and his mother, Susan, was a corporate attorney. He showed an interest in fashion at an early age and was exposed to the industry through family friends and neighbours. He attended Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn, an independent school with a heavy focus on the arts. At age 16 Posen enrolled in a precollege program at Parsons School of Design (now Parsons the New School for Design), where he studied pattern making. In 1996 he landed a two-year internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute, and subsequently he secured an internship at the Nicole Miller fashion house.

In 1999 Posen graduated from Saint Ann’s and began working as a design assistant for the Tocca fashion house. Later that year he entered the womenswear degree program at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design at the University of the Arts London. He gained recognition while still a student, when in 2000 supermodel Naomi Campbell requested one of his designs. The following year one of his dresses—made entirely from thin strips of leather held together by hook-and-eye closures—was selected to be featured in the “Curvaceous” exhibit (2001–02) at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

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In 2001 Posen returned to New York and, at age 20, held his first fashion show. It was attended by buyers for the luxury retailer Henri Bendel, which began selling his dresses. He was subsequently selected to present a capsule collection—a limited range of designs with a particular theme or focus—as a part of the Fresh Faces in Fashion show by Gen Art, a national organization that showcased new industry talent. In the same year, Posen founded his own company, Outspoke, and thereby launched his signature label.

In 2002 Posen debuted his ready-to-wear collection, which received mixed reviews. He gained significant recognition, however, when Hollywood actress Natalie Portman wore a Posen-designed gown to the London premiere of one of her films. Later that year, with Vogue editor and fashion powerhouse Anna Wintour sitting in the front row, Posen made his debut at New York Fashion Week—one of the industry’s four major semiannual events—garnering rave reviews. Posen’s 2004 collection ventured into sportswear and earned him Swarovski’s Perry Ellis Award for Womenswear from the Council of Fashion Designers of America. In addition, Posen’s success secured him the financial backing of the American rapper and clothing designer Diddy.

Posen’s exquisitely tailored designs—which were both elegant and sexy—quickly gained the favour of many of Hollywood’s top actresses. He received criticism, however, for allegedly being more concerned with the social facets of the fashion industry than with actual clothing design. Perhaps because of this criticism as well as a sharp decline in sales following the onset of the global economic crisis in 2008, Posen launched a “fast fashion” collection for the American mass-market retail company Target Corporation and produced Z Spoke, a relatively affordable collection for the luxury retailer Saks Fifth Avenue. The Posen label also expanded to include handbags, shoes, accessories, and hosiery.

Posen’s company had initially been a family affair. However, in 2010 his mother and sister, Alexandra, stepped down from their posts as chief operating officer and creative director, respectively. The changes did little to slow the designer. From 2013 to 2017 Posen was a regular judge on the TV competition show Project Runway; he had made several earlier appearances as a guest judge. In 2014 he became the creative director for Brooks Brothers women’s line, and two years later he began designing uniforms for Delta Air Lines. Posen closed his company in 2019, and the following year he ended his tenure at Brooks Brothers.

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In addition to his work in fashion, Posen published Cooking with Zac: Recipes from Rustic to Refined (2017; written with Raquel Pelzel). He was the subject of the documentary House of Z (2017).