Man Of Taste

At just 38 years old, Zac Posen has established himself as the go-to fashion designer for some of the world’s most famous faces.

His feminine, figure-flattering gowns channel old Hollywood glamour and have made him a favorite among celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez, Natalie Portman, Rihanna, Cameron Diaz and Glenn Close. 

Yet Posen doesn’t design solely for the rich and famous. His ZAC Zac Posen collection of ready-to-wear apparel is sold in high-end department stores, including Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth Avenue. In addition, he serves as the creative director of Brooks Brothers, designing the brand’s women’s collection and accessories. And, for brides-to-be, Posen has a collection of dresses sold under the Truly Zac Posen label at David’s Bridal.

“I’ve dressed women of all sizes and ages. What connects them is their inner creativity,” Posen says. “I want my clothing to help women feel empowered and to embrace their glamour and femininity.”

Design Prodigy

Posen’s foray into fashion began at a young age. Growing up in a close-knit Jewish family in New York City, he remembers playing with scraps of fabric as a child and making outfits first for his toy figures and later for friends at school.

“I was always interested in fashion design and landed my first internship at the age of 16 working with fashion designer Nicole Miller,” Posen says. “I never looked back.”

While still in high school, Posen enrolled in the pre-college program at Parsons School of Design in New York and went on to complete several other internships, including one at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. At 18, he was accepted into the womenswear degree program at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design at the University of the Arts in London. Based in New York, he launched his first line in 2001.

One of Posen’s early designs, a 1940s-style bias-cut dress, caught the eye of supermodel Naomi Campbell, who asked him to design a dress for her. After that, it didn’t take long for the fashion world to begin raving about the young designer who created sexy, form-fitting dresses that harkened back to Hollywood’s glamorous Golden Age of the 1930s and ’40s. His charismatic personality and dark good looks helped cement his image as a designer to watch. In 2002, Posen held his first runway show in New York. 

Although his sophisticated designs created a buzz and his rise to fame was rapid, he admits it wasn’t quite as seamless as it appeared to the outside world.

“It wasn’t an easy journey,” Posen says. “After launching my design business, I had to create opportunities for my line to receive exposure.”

In retrospect, Posen admits he may have been too driven and ambitious in his initial efforts to build his brand. 

The public got a candid look at the highs and lows of the designer’s career in the 2017 documentary “House of Z,” now on Netflix. The film, directed by Sandy Chronopoulos, doesn’t shy away from the setbacks Posen faced when the Great Recession hit nor the temporary rift he experienced with his family because of the business.

Posen hopes the film will inspire viewers to stick with their dreams, he says: “I want people to realize that, in order to achieve success, there’s struggles and sacrifices. It’s important to be resilient.”

For him, that meant a brief stint in Paris in 2010 hosting two fashion shows and then returning stateside to refocus and grow his brand, staying true to his company’s founding principles of craftsmanship, innovation and creativity.

Leveling Up 

In 2012, Posen became a judge on the fashion-design competition show “Project Runway,” joining Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn and replacing designer Michael Kors, who left the show after 10 seasons. The role offered Posen the chance to advise young designers and provide constructive feedback.

Known as a tough but fair judge on the show, Posen announced in 2018 that he would be leaving after six seasons. (Klum and Gunn are also departing after 16 seasons.)

“I had the absolute best time filming ‘Project Runway’ and loved every minute of it,” Posen says. “While it’s sad to leave the show, I’m currently working on several new projects that I hope to announce soon.”

Today, his brand has evolved to include 16 collections a year, ranging from daywear, suiting and red-carpet gowns to purses, accessories, eyewear, shoes and fine jewelry. Also, Posen partnered with Delta Airlines to debut new uniform designs for flight attendants and crew, which were unveiled in 2016 and launched last year.

“I wanted to bring glamour back to 30,000 feet,” Posen says of the collection, which plays on the travel theme via details such as a blouse collar shaped like an airplane wing. He also expanded upon Delta’s traditional navy and blue hues to include a suit in “passport plum” for female cabin crew and one in “graphite gray” for male crew members that features a purple tie and pocket square.

Posen’s Guilty Pleasures

When he’s not designing clothes, Posen finds solace creating delicious entrées and desserts. In 2017, he published his first cookbook, “Cooking with Zac: Recipes from Rustic to Refined.”

“I’ve been cooking my entire life,” he says. “I started posting photos of my recipes on Instagram, and that was the beginning of my cookbook.”

He adds: “I’m dyslexic and a very visual learner. Cooking for me is a detox from fashion.”

Some of his favorite recipes were inspired by his international travels. His Hot Chocolate Bundt Cake with Ganache Glaze is a tribute to the chocolat chaud he orders at Angelina’s, a popular hot-chocolate venue in Paris.

Posen also loves to garden and use home-grown vegetables in recipes such as his Herb-Roasted Chicken Over Vegetables with Browned Butter Gravy and Miso-Roasted Squash.

“One of my guilty pleasures is shopping for plants and food,” Posen says. “I always order seeds before the new year.”

Posen’s parents now live on a farm, and he enjoys finding edible treasures in their garden and enjoying family meals together.

“Life is about generosity,” he says. “I really believe the family that eats together stays together.”

Today, Posen cooks three to four nights a week in the New York City home he shares with his life partner, French stylist Christopher Niquet, and their two poodles and two miniature dachshunds.

Although he considers his dogs an important part of his life, Posen laughs when asked if he has plans to venture into designing canine couture.

“I won’t be releasing any clothes for dogs, but I do use one of my ZAC Zac Posen handbags to take my miniature dachshund, Tina Turner, to the vet.” O