What's Trending With...Zac Posen

Fashion designer discusses his must-have gadgets, favorite restaurants, beauty secret and more

By Rose Curiel Jul 10, 2013 5:57 PMTags
Zac PosenJim Spellman/WireImage

Make no mistake about it, Zac Posen knows style!

In addition to designing his own wildly successful lines, the fashion guru has helped shape burgeoning designers' careers as a judge on Project Runway, and launched a series of collaborations that keep him oh-so-busy throughout the year.

Just last month, he revealed he's created a line of affordable wedding dresses for David's Bridal, and not too long before that, he put his creative genius to use in designing a show stopping gold dress for Magnum gold ice cream bar.

"The dress that we made was 24-karat gold," Posen told us when we recently caught up with him. "It is priceless, it was really hand-crafted with a lot of love, with a lot of glamor. We wanted something that was sexy, that sort of went, like if you took Hollywood to the sun."

 Leave it to Posen to interpret a decadent dessert into an even more decadent outfit!

And since he has an eye for all things fabulous, we just had to get him to share his latest obsessions.

Here's what he had to say:

What are your favorite fashion items right now?
My favorite fashion item comes from our ZAC Zac Posen collection. And it's the Lauren mini-crossbody. It's a bag. It has amazing, clean, futuristic hardware, and then [it has] really neutral, earthy colors. It has a python-like texture. It's also at an amazing price point and looks so expensive at $295 retail.

What are your go-to grooming products?
I'm so simple. I'm pretty easy-peasy on this stuff. I take salt baths.

Was that a tip from someone?
It was actually from a holistic healer. From a holistic acupuncturist, because I travel so much. And he said you need to recalibrate when you get onto another continent after flying from radiation from airplanes. But then I figure I work in New York so there must be radiation everywhere. I alternate between sea salt and Epsom salt. And it helps me de-stress and relax. It's also for a red carpet trick—it's a great way to shed some water weight, last minute. It's a good way—for when you're drinking lots of water—to sort of de-puff.

What are your favorite restaurants?
I love En Japanese Brasserie. I'm a nostalgic person. If I could live in the restaurants in the show Mad Men, I would. I like the Four Seasons and I like La Grenouille.


Who's your celebrity style crush?
"I like how Ryan Gosling dresses on the red carpet. I like how Michelle Williams dresses on the red carpet. I like that [Williams' style] is soft. I like that it's like her own thing. I like how Tilda Swinton dresses. I like how Uma Thurman dresses. Uma's iconic.

I like people that enjoy inspiring the public to dream. Because that's our role. There's great seriousness to the arts, to creativity and to fashion, but at the end of the day we're all here to bring entertainment and happiness. And inspiration. And to go for it. There's certain people that really get that. That understand the role culturally. Like Sarah Jessica Parker. She alway takes effort to give it—because it gives inspiration for people to dream and that's the purpose of film and entertainment. It's to learn, to teach, to transport yourself for a minute."

What are your favorite television shows?
I love Mad Men. I love Project Runway, obviously. I love the show called How It's Made, where they go into assembly lines, factories, and show every component of it. I love Game of Thrones, I love Veep, I think Veep is phenomenal. I love The Colbert Report. Stephen Colbert makes me happy, I think he's so funny. I love The Soup. I'm a diehard Soup fan. 

Do you do any reality TV or have any guilty pleasure shows?
I watch Girls. Girls I adore. You try to go from Maison du Chocolat to M&M…high to low.