Hits and misses for the masses
MELBOURNE, meet Zac Posen: New York fashion prodigy, lover of
the female form, designer to the stars, and now designer to
Australia’s hoi polloi.
Posen, one of the hottest designers in New York, has dressed the
likes of Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Lopez and Naomi
Campbell %26#151; so why is he working for Target?
Brand exposure is the name of the game. Never heard of him? You
have now.
Posen follows in the footsteps of English fashion princess
Stella McCartney, who caused riots when her clothes went on sale
last year, and Australian Josh Goot, whose debut was received in a
more civilised manner.
Posen was in attendance yesterday, dapper in tweed trousers,
pink blazer and silky cravat, when his diffusion range for Target
was unveiled at the Docklands, as the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion
Festival drew to a close.
It was Posen’s first visit down under, but he had already
determined the native female psyche: “In Australia all these women
are really strong characters so now they have to start dressing
like them.”
When Posen talks fashion he brings to mind the rhapsodic
affirmations and starry-eyed ramblings of New Age gurus. He doesn’t
just design clothes, he makes clothes designed to give women
“creative empowerment” and “empowered femininity”.
“Our woman is a warrior and she needs the really fantastic,
colourful prints balanced with more architectural and structured
pieces,” he has said.
Such hyperbole is in some ways forgiveable %26#151; his signature
designs do speak of a man who loves the female form.
So how did his diffusion range stack up?
The bold silhouettes and detailing of his signature range were
there, but so too were a few misses among the hits %26#151; including
some unforgiving satiny ruched numbers that even Paulini, the
Australian Idol contestant who wore that gold dress,
might have baulked at. Shiny dresses of green and pink just looked
cheap %26#151; if gazelle-like models can’t make them work, who can?
Patterned fabrics that were a cross between paisley and Gucci
didn’t quite work either %26#151; it is difficult to pull off the
swish and glamour of silk when you’re working with less than
natural fibres.
Better were dresses that evoked the simple glamour of the 1950s
%26#151; particularly so, a fabulously sweet dress in red or black,
with a cinched waist, full skirt, boat neck with gold brocade, and
delicately scooped back.
Diffusion is risky business %26#151; it may bring mass exposure,
but it may also discolour, ever so slightly, one’s image.
To wit: will we ever be able to think of Stella McCartney again
without thinking of women willing to punch each other’s lights out
over her taffeta trench?
