This season Zac Posen was going for an “inner Audrey Hepburn through the eyes of Marina Schiano doing Brancusi,” he said backstage. Posen successfully translated the idea into Givenchy-in-the-Fifties cocktail dresses, with a black off-the-shoulder satin dress and a white cotton bustier look. To give the collection a modern touch, Posen used sculpted Neoprene on various exits. In juxtaposition to the heavy Neoprene, the designer offered several lightweight form-fitting dresses and gowns, often with English embroidery.
Though he has left behind some of his theatrics, a Zac show wouldn’t be complete without a grand finale, this one with model Anna Cleveland hamming it up for the photographers in a red strapless mermaid dress, followed by another model in a black Neoprene number that used the female form as a basis for gown as sculpture — with a train that’ll bring out a girl’s inner Brancusi.
The scuba fabric may be a tough sell; more successful were Posen’s pant-heavy day looks, with a black fitted jacket among the stronger pieces.