Week 5

Zac Posen creates ready to wear collections comprised of day wear, suiting, and evening wear.  He has also recently branched out with accessories such as handbags.  His merchandise is for women of a diverse age range that are sophisticated, feminine, and glamorous.  With a hefty price tag that comes along with most of his items, the majority of his customers are celebrities and upper class socialites.  All of his pieces are classic and he smartly steers away from fads and trendy styles.  A few of my favorite pieces from his latest Resort 2014 Collection are pictured below.  Zac's prices are very steep for the Collection- averaging at about $3,000 for a gown.  His lower-priced line, ZSpoke, hits at the upper hundreds range and it comprised of some of his more casual merchandise.  This week was much like the past few weeks in terms of what I was doing.  For most of the week, a few of the other interns and I worked on inserting boning into one of his ball gowns ordered by a client of his.  See below for a picture of the amazing gown!  I was decently busy this week but was able to have some downtime to sketch my own designs.  Like always, I'm looking forward to next weeks challenges and experiences!

this is the pink ball gown that I worked on this week

Current Event: Week 4!

Zac Posen to design lower price line for David's bridal:

USA Today recently posted an article showcasing the news that my own boss, Zac Posen, is teaming up with David's Bridal to design a lower-priced bridal line. I knew of this news a bit ahead of time but not until this past week was I able to see one of the new wedding gowns being created right in front of my eyes!  It was beautiful and romantic of course and showed no indication of it being lower priced than most of his couture gowns. I witnessed the same amount of hard work in the atelier being put into its creation as everything else.  I was even lucky enough to steam out some of the tulle for one of the dresses! 

While reading the pleasing and complimentary article, paired with a video interview, I was happy to realize that it was done at the studio that I work in everyday.  The article does well in describing Posen's aim to appeal to his wide base of customers and brides of  urban, suburban, and country style. I think that this is a bold and gutsy yet smart move by Zac. Appealing to the lower price ranged clientele is always a smart move in my book for high fashion designers. Bridal is also a great niche for Posen to break into since he has already made a reputable name for himself in the gown and special occasion wear category.  Why not dip your toes into an always relevant area such as bridal? Also, due to the general consumer's struggle with the slow economy in the U.S., finding bridal items that are designer and lower priced is always desirable.  When speaking with one of the designers at Zac Posen about this new venture, he was very enthusiastic about the expansion and truly believed that it would be a good move for the company. I sure hope that he is right!

photo detail of one of Zac's gowns for David's Bridal

Source:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2013/06/12/zac-posen-davids-bridal-launch-new-bridal-line-truly-zac-posen/2412729/

Week 4 @ Zac Posen!

         Zac Posen has been advertising through various media channels including Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook as well as through popular fashion websites such as style.com and vogue.com.  Zac, himself, tweets and posts instagram pictures of his personal life, his designs, and the garments in the process of being made. This personal touch is great for reaching out to customers and fans on a more tangible and intimate level. In reference to his photo advertising specifically, Zac does well in always exuding a general feeling of glamour and fun. Below is an example of one of his photos from a recent shoot of the new Resort Collection. The target customer for Zac Posen varies depending on whether it's for his Z Spoke line or the  collection. Z Spoke is directed towards the middle to upper class woman that is searching for ready to wear clothing and accessories that are classy, glamorous, and wearable. The collection is aimed towards a more specific niche of customers including celebrities and wealthy women looking for a specialty item.  Collection  pieces are very labor intensive and expensive but are amazingly glamorous.  I think Zac does well in reaching out to his target market since they are most often looking for pieces and ideas from word of mouth or on social media sites. They are also usually looking for pieces that are more special and rare instead of common among the magazine pages and billboard ads. 

       This past week at my internship has been much less busy and eventful than previous weeks because the Resort 2014 collection has been finished and the designers are now brainstorming and gearing up for the next season's collection. The interns have been given tasks including researching ideas and trends, trying out different sewing and draping techniques, and creating our own prints for fabric ideas. In our downtime, we have been sketching our own designs and playing around with different dying techniques as well.  We have also been assisting the sewers with finishing off specially made to order gowns for personal clients. I'm always learning new things about design every day, as well as different sewing and construction techniques. The most humorous part of this week, by far, was watching a video of one of my fellow interns performing in a drag show at school, with the whole design team. Again, I can't wait for what's ahead of me at my internship and will continue to keep posting about my experiences!

Week 2 @ Zac Posen: Current Event

I’ve recently read an article on Refinery29.com that addresses the growing use of healthier and “normal” weight models in fashion campaigns as well as making the workplaces more sustainable.  The article specifically targets H&M CEO Karl-Johan Persson’s new plan to push his Bangladesh factories to increase the minimum wage and equal opportunities for the workers.  In addition, he plans to move towards using healthier models and veer away from the “too skinny” ones.  These changes may be a huge step for the rest of the fashion industry since H&M will no doubt be highly praised for these efforts. 

This change could effect how the workplace at my company, Zac Posen, chooses to move forward with its own advertising.  The switch to using more realistically sized models is a great idea for H&M, but since the target customer and luxury level difference between the companies is so large, Zac Posen may be better off by sticking to its usual curvy yet thin and leggy models.   I know that money is a huge issue everywhere, but the recent sustainable changes in H&M’s company may have a bigger effect on a company like Zac Posen.  In light of the recent tragedies in Bangladesh, this issue has hit the fashion industry hard and many are expecting large companies to make more sustainable changes.

 

I brought this article up to one of my fellow interns at Zac Posen and we were both in agreement on the topics.  We felt that the industry should follow in H&M’s footsteps and work to make changes in the images they are sending out to the public about what is beautiful in respect to weight and size.  It will be more appealing to the population as a whole if they recognize the issue that the industry models are thinner than what is normal or expected.  We also agreed on the fact that even though our company is known for treating its employees very well, there is always room for improvement on the topic of pay and sustainability.

Address for the article:

http://www.refinery29.com/2013/05/47680/hm-ceo-interview-sustainability

Image from a recent H&M campaign using the "curvier" Beyonce as a model

Week 2 at Zac Posen

Zac Posen has grown remarkably in the past few years.  Known for his beautiful and feminine gowns, Zac is a favorite among celebrities and is seen frequently on the red carpet.  His designs are most recognized for their sensual shapes and amazing detail. In addition to his couture gowns, Zac also has a less expensive line called Z Spoke, which features more ready-to-wear. 

The company has been known for its bustling and growing offices in Tribeca.  It has a great reputation among the industry and has been more than welcoming to all of its new interns, including myself.  I think that I fit into the company culture as it is more laid back than I had initially expected.  Everyone working there is extremely talented but fairly young, which makes it easy to connect with everyone.  Customer service in the company is impeccable as far as I know.  Multiple times, I’ve witnessed Zac showing his clients around the offices, making them feel more than welcome. 

Any mistakes that I’ve made in the office have been minor and the employees are always forgiving and understanding when they happen.  I’ve been learning so much from each mistake and continually improving at any tasks that are required of me. 

This past week, I moved into my NYU apartment.  It is a suite with two bedrooms, with 3 girls in each room.  Even though there are a lot of girls in the one living area, the space that we have is plenty and has been fine so far. 

Next week is press week at the offices and I’m looking forward to seeing the media and publishers come by and view the new Resort collection.  It’s great to see everything in its finished form after all of the hard work that was put into completing Resort last week!