“Fashion has a dark side—it’s not all runways and lipstick and fishtail gowns,” says Zac Posen in the opening of the House of Z. Staging the world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday night, the documentary covers the life and career of Posen—including his professional ups and downs. “I think if you’re going to make a movie, especially today about the creative process and media, you have to be honest,” Posen said. “I wasn’t interested in throwing myself into a puff piece.” Fitting, then, that the film chronicles the negative press Posen received throughout several seasons of less-than-stellar reviews. As the film’s director, Sandy Chronopoulos, explained prior to the screening: “He was catapulted into stardom at age 21, and he really went through the fashion machine,” she said. “To see his rise and fall and rise again is a story of redemption.”
Some might say that, like Posen’s meteoric success, the film itself was meant to be. “I didn’t set out to make a documentary on Zac Posen,” Chronopoulos admitted. “I actually went in to make a television special about the making of a collection.” During what was slated to be the last interview for the series, Chronopoulos, who has a background in journalism, said the light bulb went off. “I knew immediately that it was worthy of a feature film.” House of Z features candid conversations with Posen and his close-knit family, plus fashion heavy-hitters, including Vogue’s Nicole Phelps, Hamish Bowles, and André Leon Talley, who moderated a panel following the screening. “You are like the Charles James of today,” Talley said, referencing a scene in which Posen is putting the finishing touches on a memorable teal dress from his Fall 2014 runway presentation. “The way you approach touching the fabric and finding the seams on the body and really cutting the fabric in your craft and construction.”
So, Talley wanted to know, was Posen always intent on becoming a designer? “I was very interested in theatre, so my first love of fashion comes from costume, and I think that’s pretty clear within my work and the level of theatricality,” Posen said. This was no doubt evidenced by the dress he designed for Claire Danes at the 2016 Met Gala, which came wired with fiber optics creating a literal LED-lit glow. “It hit a magic moment for people and it worked,” Posen said, recalling how Vogue’s Anna Wintour and Lisa Love instructed that the back of a chair be sawed off on-site in order to accommodate the dress’s grandiose measurements. “You want to give a woman a kind of power,” Posen said. “Power in her femininity, her strength, and her inner glamour, whether it’s more casual or a giant ball gown.”
As House of Z magnificently illustrates, there’s a grittier side to the story. “It’s about resilience and what it takes within fashion,” Posen told Vogue prior to the screening. “There are low points, and it’s about how you grow from those. I think it’s important for young creators, young designers, and people who are interested in working in fashion, to see one take on what you can do to build your dreams.” Among those who posed questions at the panel included a Fashion Institute of Technology–bound student, a former Zac Posen intern, and a woman who had seen Posen speak at a Teen Vogue event some seven years earlier. It was a bold testament to Posen’s impact on the industry. “If I had seen a film like this when I was starting out or was a fashion student, I think it would have been very informative,” Posen said before offering this word of advice: “Study the history of fashion, stay off Pinterest,” he said. “Be cutting and sewing everything that you wear every day—that’s key.”
Posen learned the importance of becoming the face of your brand early on, fashioning clothing for himself as well as his closest friends and schoolmates such as model Karen Elson and actress Jemima Kirke. In the film, Elson recounts her early impressions of Posen, whom she met as a teenager: “He was just always stitching something, always creating.” Posen still dresses the part. “When I first met Zac, he was the guy who was always in the three-piece suit,” Chronopoulos said. “He was very glossy and glamorous and charismatic, but it wasn’t until I got to know him that I saw behind that to the real person.” Fortunately, with House of Z, audiences are given the very special chance to do the same.
