Zac Posen may be a star on Seventh Avenue, but he’s a fan of Boston.
The New York fashion designer is another success story who credits his many Hub connections with boosting his career.
He had his first trunk show at Louis Boston. Harvard Business School students made him the subject of a study, which helped him launch his secondary line, Z Spoke. And he’s an Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum junkie.
“I love the history, the mystery of the artwork,” he said. “I love the nasturtiums (grown in the courtyard). I’m crazy for all that.”
Posen will get another chance to revel here Tuesday when he appears at Neiman Marcus for a trunk show featuring his resort and spring 2012 collections. Fans of the 31-year-old talent will get up close with pieces that “feel like American couture.”
“There is a sense of pride and an Americana quality to it,” he said, in a telephone interview from his Manhattan studio earlier this week. “It is New England — grandeur in form, but (with) a cleanliness of design.”
His master eye — and technical skill — is what makes the Zac Posen brand so coveted among fashion’s elite, said Alexis Maybank, founder and chief marketing officer for members-only shopping website Gilt Groupe.
Maybank and her Gilt co-founder Alexandra Wilkis Wilson were HBS students in 2003, when they invited Posen to speak to their class.
“People were really intrigued,” she recalled, of the then-23-year-old. “He was so charming, so nice.”
The speaking engagement turned into a project on extending the brand’s reach. In 2007, Gilt launched its flash-sale site with, of course, Zac Posen dresses.
“It sold out,” said Maybank. “And it’s one of the best-selling brands when we sell. He’s almost got a cult following.’
Posen’s devotees have stayed with him on what he describes as a roller-coaster career path. At age 16 he attended the pre-college program at Parsons the New School for Design, and five years later presented his first runway collection at New York Fashion Week to industry fanfare. In 2004, Sean Combs’ Sean John label made a big investment in Posen’s brand.
“You have to have your focus on the balance between life and work. When I was so young, and thrusted up in a such a crazy, overwhelming way, one will start to believe it,” said a reflective Posen. “At the end of the day, it’s not always darling to be a darling.”
He finds that balance with his partner, stylist Christopher Niquet, his dogs and in his kitchen.
“I go home three nights a week and cook,” said Posen, who regularly tweets favorite recipes (@Zac_Posen).
“What I’ve learned so far is, and it took time to get there, it’s about process. If you have an enjoyable process, it shows. If a garment is going to make you happy, the model happy, the editor happy, the buyer happy, the photographer happy and, eventually, the customer. I really believe in the karma of what goes into clothing.”
