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Wolves and crows, ants and mushrooms: in nature there are many curious cases of symbiosis, that is, cooperation, even between very different species, aimed at simplifying and improving their respective existences. Not in a forest, but in the fashion industry, an interesting and challenging symbiosis has recently appeared: the one that unites Gap, the American group founded in 1969 famous for its denim and relaxed style, and Zac Posen, a designer who had his peak especially in the first twenty years of the 2000s with his couture creations dressed by a long list of celebrities and who has just been appointed executive vice president and creative director of Gap (and also creative director of another brand of the group, Old Navy, which has an even more accessible positioning). What is the purpose of this symbiosis which at first sight is so bizarre? For both of them, simply, coming back to life.
The paths of Gap and Zac Posen are in fact united by great success, albeit in different years and for different lengths of time, followed by great declines in the same to reach, in the case of Posen, almost the room of forgotten names. Let’s remember them: Posen, born in New York in 1980, an uncommon talent for mathematics, grew creatively between New York and London, where he made himself known and appreciated during his years of studies at Central Saint Martins. He was 21 years old when the New York Times reported the news of a dinner in Milan, in which the young designer was allegedly “wooed” by the big names in the industry of the moment, namely Yves Carcelle, at the time president of Lvmh Fashion Group, Sidney Toledano, CEO of Christian Dior at the time, and Domenico De Sole, president and CEO of the Gucci Group. Barneys, the most sought-after department store in the United States, had bet with conviction on his success.
Years of great growth and recognition began for Posen, who offered his fabulous dresses to Hollywood, TV and socialite stars, until he became one of the favorite designers of the First Lady of those years, Michelle Obama. In 2018 he was appointed creative director of Brooks Brothers, another emblematic brand of the American wasp, as well as the oldest in the country (founded in 1818, but which declared bankruptcy in 2020), and was also enlisted to design the uniforms for Delta Airlines. But here comes the annus horribilis, 2019. Since its debut, much has changed in the fashion industry in the meantime, both in sales channels and in communication. Barneys declares bankruptcy, and a few months later Zac Posen also announces the end of his brand. The orders for his latest collection, the one for SS 2020, were never shipped.
As Vanessa Friedman noted in the New York Times at the time, “after all, Posen is not the first of his generation of designers – the generation that emerged after 9/11 and before the global crisis and was thrust into the spotlight too early, as part of a concerted effort to create a positive narrative in dark times – to run into the obstacle of today’s evolving business and fail to overcome it.” A group which also included other designers who were first praised and then disappeared, such as Thakoon Panichgul, Phillip Lim and Derek Lam.
The Posen years were those in which department stores were not in deep crisis, like today, and where magazines belonging to editorial groups that today lay off staff and are forced to find other sources of business, made and unmade destinies and fortunes. The large groups, which could have saved and enhanced him, never invested in Zac Posen. That on his part he had never wanted to “democratize” himself by expanding the brand to profitable categories such as accessories or fragrances (salvation, for example, of Narciso Rodriguez, another child prodigy but today very tarnished on the American scene).