Before I talk about the House of Z, there are a couple of things I wanted to mention, of course, the hurricanes both Harvey and now Irma that are devasting vast areas not only in the States but the Caribbean and now the earthquake in Mexico.  Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone in their paths.  Another sad note, Pierre Bergé died at the age of 86.  The person who made Yves Saint Laurent a household name and gave us unprecedented art and antiques and the new Yves Saint Laurent museums in Paris and Marrakech.  We must thank him for giving us beauty in so many forms, RIP.

On a happy note, New York Fashion Week is in full swing and the Collection that caught my eye is Calvin Klein, designer Raf Simons has turned the Brand around and Spring 2018 is chocked full of color!  More on NYFW in upcoming posts.

Now for this post….my first “movie” review.

I had the pleasure of being invited by Brooks Brothers Chicago (Zac is the creative director of Brook Brothers) to attend a reception at the Michigan Avenue store and a screening of the House of Z a documentary on Zac Posen.  The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival to rave reviews. You can watch the film on www.vogue.com/houseofz

The film traces the designer’s life, from childhood to 2014, and his beginnings with his mother and sister at 20, in 2001, at which time his premiere collection was met with great enthusiasm from the press and stores.  It goes through the major ups and the major downs when no one wanted to know him…ego does get in the way of many creative people.  It doesn’t hold back on anything, the details are not glossed over, which I found refreshing and at times very sad.  It is the story of triumph, failure, and triumph once again…only in America, which I believe is true.

My opinion of Zac Posen has always been a positive one, he is extraordinarily talented and I feel his early success was too much too soon.  Not unusual in our industry but in many cases if a desinger goes into a decline they often don’t come back.  Fortunately for all of us Zac most certainly has come back and with a bang.  He, of course, kept in the public eye and became even visible with his participation on Project Runway. Always the darling of celelebrities walking the red carpet and once again with the press. The Collection that is featured as the “comeback” show is his Fall 2014 Collection and is presented in his atelier, it is an ode to Charles James who he feels has always been his inspirational designer.  Watching THE blue dress come to life and how many hands and hours it takes is fascinating, charming and nail biting. The only other fashion designer documentary that I have seen that resembles this is Isaac Mizrahi and Unzipped, which I thought was so sad…and look at Isaac now into so many things, including one man shows…he will be at the City Winery www.citywinery.com/chicago on September 29th!!  I found House of Z to be gritty, honest, with major doses of what goes on behind the scenes of not only creating clothes but into the heart, and yes, the soul of the designer.  Bravo!

Isn’t this amazing….

Did I work with Zac, yes, I did.  Saks Fifth Avenue Chicago hosted him at a benefit for Steppenwolf Theater www.steppenwolf.org at a show at the Murphy Auditorium www.the-murphy.com an absolutely gorgeous venue.  My production team from Ravenswood Studios headed by Deb Gohr built a runway out from the stage and painted it to look exactly like the wood on the stage everyone thought it was part of the room. Backstage was right next to the audience and very, very tight quarters…trying to keep 20+ models quiet is always a challenge but all went off without a hitch and was quite a stunning show.  We featured the Fall 2008 collection that spring, I always liked to do the collections as close to the actual time they are shown during market weeks rather than in season when everyone has seen them especially true now with most of the designers either live streaming and everyone in the audience immediately posting their photos and/or videos on Instagram.

Two of the looks from the Zac Posen Fall 2008  Collection.