The Bossticks - Zac Posen On Unlocking Your Creativity, Style Advice For Anyone, Design, & How To Break Into The Fashion Industry

Episode Date: November 23, 2023

#629: Today, we're sitting down with Zac Posen. Zac became fashion's newest star in 2002 when his alluringly feminine dresses made their New York City runway debut. Though he was still rather young to be a business owner, Posen earned enthusiastic write-ups on the pages of Vogue and other esteemed fashion magazines for his creative flair. Today, we sit down with Zac to talk all things fashion and how to get started in the fashion industry. He goes into how he became interested in design, the competitiveness of the industry, and gives the audience tips on how to make it in the fashion world. To connect with Zac Posen click HERE To connect with Lauryn Evarts Bosstick click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE To subscribe to our YouTube Page click HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential. Get 20% off The Skinny Confidential products until 11/27 at midnight on Amazon or our website.  This episode is brought to you by Cymbiotika Cymbiotika is a health supplement company, designing sophisticated organic formulations that are scientifically proven to increase vitality and longevity by filling nutritional gaps that result from our modern day diet. Use code SKINNY at checkout to receive 15% off your purchase at cymbiotika.com This episode is brought to you by AG1 If you want to take ownership of your health, it starts with AG1. Go to drinkAG1.com/SKINNY to get a free 1-year supply of Vitamin D3K2 AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase. This episode is brought to you by Wella Wella Professionals just released its most luxurious hair care line; Ultimate Repair. You can purchase The Ultimate Repair Miracle Hair Rescue at Ulta stores, or go to wella.com to learn more. This episode is brought to you by Armra ARMRA Colostrum strengthens immunity, ignites metabolism, fortifies gut health, activates hair growth and skin radiance, and powers fitness performance and recovery. Visit www.tryamra.com/skinny or use code SKINNY40 at checkout for 40% off your black Friday or Cyber Monday auto-ship order. Produced by Dear Media

The following podcast is a dear media production. Black Friday, Cyber Monday is here for the Skinny Confidential. All you have to do is go to shop skinnyconfidential.com and you get 20% off products. So go grab an ice roller, some pink balls, stock up on holiday gifts, get the body sculptor. The best stocking stuffer gift is the razor. It fits right in a stocking. Same with the driving gloves. And then who doesn't want to open an ice roller on Christmas?

Go stock up on all the things. Shop Skinnyconfidential.com. available on the TSC website. That's shop, skinnyconfidential.com. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie.

And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you alone for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her. In 2001 to be representing different women's character and talking about personality and how clothing brings out that creative personality and embraces it and different age women, different body types, all different backgrounds of colors and races. That message to me was really important. And I think I had to wait 18 years for that to come into like popular culture of fashion. Zach Posen, you may have heard of him. He is all over Instagram. He is all over

Instagram. He is all over the daily mail. He is all over the internet because he is a top American designer. He emerged his fashion's newest star in 2002 with his alluring feminine dresses made in their New York City runway debut. He was really young to be a business owner, but he was still earning enthusiastic write-ups on the pages of Vogue and other esteemed fashion magazines for his creative flair. Zach is a native New Yorker and his rapid rise in the fashion industry was partly fueled by his personal connections to some well-known tastemakers in the world of arts and film. You guys, this episode's really amazing for someone who really wants to take their creativity and turn it into a business. I know I learned a lot. On that note,

welcome the top fashion designer Zach Posen to The Him and Her show. This is the Skinny Confidential Him and Her. Where one ends up, where they travel, you know, there's so many fans. actors, right? And I think today, it can be love. I mean, I think love makes people travel. I think education makes people travel. Work makes people find their home and location. And I think that you have to make your peace with where that is on your sanctuary. I think that living in urban environments like cities, I'm a born and raised New York City, lower Manhattan, Soho kid, you know, But living in a city can be really intense. It's a lot of actual electric energy, a lot of waves, a lot of human energy.

There's a lot of history on top, on top and top of each other. It's like Rome, you know, layers below and below and below. And it just gets built on top of it. You know, that can be overwhelming. I think it's very important today more than ever for people to take. their feet, their shoes off, and put their feet on the ground. Oh my God. Totally agree. Especially, it's hard in New York City. You know what I told my friend? I'm like, go buy a litter box and put soil in it with grass that you get at Home Depot. But it needs to be attached

to the earth though, right? Yeah, yeah. I think that's good. But whatever it takes. It's giving something. It's giving something. I mean, I just said if I, if I find myself in my- beach and get the sand. No, but if I find myself indoors in my home standing in a litter box, I think it's over for my- No, that's just really weird. Yeah, yeah. Like looking in the mirror of feet in the litter box. Like, imagine someone walking in and be like, I wonder what this guy and he accidentally just see me standing in a litter box.

Like that, I can't do it. It's too much. When you look back at your childhood, did you know since you were a little boy that you were sort of destined for this greatness? Like, what were you like as a child? I was a little performer. I definitely dreamt big. Okay.

Sometimes I think that, you know, I'll have a book one day and I'll, you know, I could have called it Delusions of Granger. Love. And, you know, but I don't think it was, you know, I think it was, I definitely lived in a, in my own fantasy world. I definitely loved other people, right? I'm a people person. I like connecting with people. I like promoting people, bringing them to their highest potential.

Like, it's just something I do. And I think that that first was interested. through theater and film. Right, that's my first, first full love, right? It was, I loved performing, I loved making little macket theaters

in my bedroom, and I would get all my figurines, my, my He-Man dolls, my Star Wars figurines, you know, and they would be my cast of characters for plays that I'd put on,

on little, you know, in a little, you know, built out of shoe boxes and things and steal my sister's dolls until I could get my own dolls to make dresses on. And that's kind of how it started. You would steal your sister's dolls.

Start until I got my own. Then they made like the female version of He-Man and that was Shira. And you made- You made outfits for these. Oh yeah. I would use every little scrap or anything. What age is this? Three.

Oh, wow. Four, five. I mean, that was it. And, you know, I think at that time, too, I was probably ashamed of the dolls too. So I remember like a whole process of hiding them for like my sixth birthday. They were found. And what happened?

I don't know. I was embarrassed, I think, by that, but then not. Like embarrassed in front of your parents or your siblings? No, not my parents. My parents were supportive beyond. My dad's an artist and a painter and my, I had a very loving, creative, at a very nurturing creative environment that I grew up in. And I think that's really important for parents who have any kind of children. I think that a lot of that gets lost, though. There's sometimes there isn't that kind of environment. And you're really lucky that you have that. I'm beyond fortunate. I hope that

in my journey, in my life, that I can try to share that because I think I've lived in, you know, a lot of different scenarios. I've lived in worlds that can be very excessive at times, very glamorous at times. Also a huge amount of work that people don't see behind it and love sweat and tears. But I think that behind all of that, you have to love process and you have to nurture creativity. Like, that is so important, whether that is how you make eggs in the morning. Like, even if you do that or, like, how, you know, there's just little small things that actually are creative expressions that people aren't aware of, but it's actually very human. How do you make Zach's eggs in the morning creatively? It depends.

Like, okay. I mean, I'm like on a health thing. I'm obsessed with poached. Do you add vinegar to your water? Yes. So it doesn't, like, spill out the loaf. No, she doesn't. She's lying.

She doesn't add vinegar with water. I do. I add white vinegar. Teaspoon. Do it. It works. I do add white vinegar to the water. No, it's a little bit floppy. They are floppy.

Yeah, it's a little bit floppy. Flotted spoon. I always find it so interesting to talk to creative people because I, like, I'm envious in a way where I feel like you see the world completely different than I do. Not to say that I'm not creative in some ways. You're creative in ways. But not like quote unquote like in an artist kind of way.

Maybe like I can see some, like if I'm doing a business deal, I could see maybe how things should form together maybe. Right. something. Well, I think business can be artistic. I think the best business is artistic. And I think you have to think outside of the box to build a successful business today more than ever. Like all formulas are gone. Right. I think that, I mean, you know, one plus one, sort of, but not really, right? I mean, it's all alternative. And I think how everything is structured, we can kind of re-question, but we are living in an age when things are all communicated,

digitally, but like we have to go to bed with ourselves at the end of the night and know that one day maybe like digital could be shut off or digital could take over. I mean, I'm not getting cryptic here. But there is that place where like you have to be okay with yourself. When you when you think about cultivating creativity, because I think like to your point, we're getting into the screen digital formulaic, people look at what other people do and they're just going to like kind of like Well, AI. It's like creative for you through some algorithm. Exactly. So how do you, from your perspective cultivate creativity

because I think to your point everybody has creativity get your hands dirty okay elaborate make a mess like what do you give us example

like literally get a hunk of clay and stick your hands in it and see what shape you conform doesn't have to be figurative it's not about naming something see like what comes out

my dad who's an artist who's interestingly I feel like later in my life like recently has become this other level of an incredible teacher to my creativity. He's in his 80s, but it's like,

we have this new relationship where there's like a breakdown. He'll just have me on a piece of paper to concentric small, very light circles and over and over again, all over a white piece of paper until I start to find a form. I don't have to name it, but it will like

come out the drawing. And I think it's just like those kind of thing that I like taking a piece of clay. I think making cookies. I mean, let's be really simple. Like making cookies with your kids. and playing with how it's being iced, making decorations for the holidays. These are things that are connected to like cultural,

you know, institutions, right, and things that become tradition and, you know, are seemingly disguised as fun. But they're also really creative outputs. Decorating, making, you know,

how you set a table, right? I mean, those are like gestures that are output. I think probably like how, a kid, I mean, I don't know, I'm hearing a lot of people, you know, who are watching the David Beckham documentary talking about like his creative process to sports, right? And his, and I think that's really telling, right? It's like, how do you get great at something and like long, you know,

long distance planning, long distance like performance? And it's all like that. It's how, if you're playing a sports, like how you're moving to dance. What other creative endeavors Did you partaken when you were young? You mentioned... Whoa, so many different things. Yeah, tell us all the things. I love to cook. I wanted to be a baker.

Okay. Kind of came back. I wrote a cookbook in my life. Love it. Cooking with Zach. Rustic to refined. A collection of recipes. All kinds of...

I mean, I was singing. I mean, I sing until I was 18 years old. And then I just like let that go because my voice changed. Bring it like a Christmas CD back. Christmas CD? Yeah. Holiday, holiday tunes, maybe. Yeah.

I have so many friends who are such talented vocalists, like the most in the world that it's so scary. I'm like, okay, well, fun. Do a duet. I could. Yeah, I thought about it, a little duet. Okay, maybe one day. So you enter design school at 16 years old. Yeah, I did a pre-college summer course at Parsons.

And that's a major deal. That's a huge. It was cool. I was young. I was pretty young for the kid. You know, my other kids were older, like entering college. And yeah, I was definitely like three years. ahead. But I was in New York. So a lot of the kids were from like outside of New York. I come into

the big city for the first time. And then it was like my town. So when you when you do that at 16 years old, did you automatically feel connected to fashion? No. It took a while. I think so. I mean, I think that course was very formative about something that kind of for me is fleeting, which is like American New York fashion industry and 7th Avenue, the city within the city. Okay. And so in 1996 or 1995, there was the center area in like Midtown, New York that was like a bustling hub where like a lot of clothing was made

and had been made for a long time, right? It was like after World War II, there was a whole garment industry that was really built in America. And like sportswear was invented. It was like booming, like outerwear coats, you know, a whole generation of different immigrant groups from Jewish immigrants to, you know, a lot of Asian immigrants over the years to Hispanic immigrants over the years or Latin ex immigrants over there's have come through the garment district and built their foundations in America through manufacturing and making of clothing. That was still sort of at its last thriving moment. There were all these American brands. So I entered into that and I could feel that at Parsons, which was there.

Like 1996, 1995. It was still like there. So I was just feeling that. But fashion design had like formulas to it at Parsons. Like how many heads high. What a fashion illustration had to look like. I remember my father, who's an abstract painter, was like horrified. He was like, no, they're teaching my kid like,

how to name an eye or a lip when he's drawing when it should just like find the form because it's probably more expressive. But I did learn it and I did perfect it and I, you know, would make these very 90s supermodely extravagant drawings and I was starting to make clothing myself. I was making clothing for myself to go out to the nightclubs. Make clothing for my girlfriends for the nightclubs. You know, and I had like a whole crew and it was like I was learning. I was coming of age, but not really. I was like so young. I mean, I'm so lucky I'm still here. When you grew up in a place like New York City, do you feel you grow up faster here than other places? That's hard to say. I mean, I only have my own experience. Some ways, yes, in some ways,

no. Like, it was really innocent. I mean, I don't, you know, I grew up in lower Manhattan, creative parents, pretty open family. I still had, you know, my dad's from St. Louis, Missouri. I don't know. There were still like family values and I, you know, there were still rules, right? I still would get grounded. I mean, there are some people, kids I knew that I grew up with that are like, we're like adults by that age, right? And like working or working as, you know, young actors or models and had been performers and like professionals. You know, I just like idolize that. I was like, whoa, I want to be a professional and I want to figure out as fast as I can. What I want to say. and how I can express that and share that. And maybe I'll make a living off of that. But I knew kind of that energy from that moment on from 16 was like immediate like, oh, I have a dialogue with my city. Right.

And then it grew into other jobs. I worked at, I got an internship at the Metropolitan Museum and the Costume Institute. And like then that energy got built there and, you know, found a collective of other young people making stuff. But then also learned my fashion history intensive ABC before there's a Google search or a Pinterest. Like you had to look in books. You had to learn. It was word of mouth to understand or learn fashion history or any of this.

Yeah, it was like exploring the city. I mean, I guess in some ways like street smarts, that's real, right? Like knowing how to look over your shoulder, feel stuff out, not be like scared by other people. Right. But then there's other stuff like, I don't drive. I don't have a license I love that. No, I don't love that.

Why? Because it's like very not sexy. I love being driven around. At this point though, do you even really need? Like we think about this all the time. It's like when the self-driving car is going to come out. No, but like do you even need a car? You just walk or Uber.

No, I need a car because I actually, as I said, I like taking my shoes off and I like putting my feet on grass and I like to garden. My parents live outside of the city now. That's creative too. Yeah, you get out. I have to get out of this. I like, I'm. I love horticulture. I like farming.

Come over. Get a chicken. Make me some eggs. The fact that I don't have like dirt under my nails right now is like a rarity. I'm pretty like low key in that sense too. I have like a both. I need both sides. And sometimes I'm like maybe I'd just be very zen and happy.

I feel like you need to write a gardening book. I could. Please. I don't know what the market is. If there's a market out there, maybe. But I think, yeah, building your own garden. Yeah. You know, I love it.

I started gardening. The bug came. My mom thought I need to get connected to nature. And her and people in the building, they built a box garden on our roof in our loft building. And that's where I kind of started falling in love that. Oh, my gosh, you can grow a strawberry or you could, you know, this is a seed and this is how it grow. I mean, really simple stuff that connected me. And that's what started that bug.

When you look back with all the wisdom that you have now, I mean, you've had a lot of longevity in this industry. What advice would you give to yourself starting out in the fashion industry? Well, I think the industry is very different today, right? But I would say give yourself as much creative incubation time as possible. What does that mean? So that means that when I started, and I'm not saying 16, I'm saying let's say like 21 or turning 21 because that's when it really kind of hit for me. Which is still very young. Which is really, I was a child. I mean, it really was a child at that time. I'd gone to university in England for design school, but it had evolved there. I would say that at that moment it hit, right?

And you're on the cover of everything and you want to build a business quickly out of it and the opportunities are there. I wish that I had been able to, even if, afford the time to say, like, hold on, let me continue to develop my creative vision. Like, let's get this going because, like, I don't know if I can make another sample. I'm fascinated by the space, but also ignorant to the space. It's just not my industry. Is this one of those things where it's like you're kind of getting called up to the majors? You're having that moment. People are aware of you. Like, you kind of have to go, right?

The great composer and lyricist, Stephen Sondheim. He said, opportunity is not a lengthy visitor. And yeah, there was that feeling and there was necessity. I mean, I had brought in my mom and sister and friends and interns. And we were all like, it's kind of like, let's put on a show, right? I mean, that's really what it was. It was like, here are some samples I have from that I like didn't sell to people when I was at school in London. I came back and I was like, here we have an opportunity. Quick break to talk about one of our favorite partners, one of our most useful partners,

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that's drinkag1.com slash skinny. Check it out. Who was the person that wore your first outfit that you were fucking freaking out about? The first person, I think the really, I mean, so when I was in school in London, Naomi Campbell, that's a good one. It saw some pieces that I had made and she started coming and she ordered pieces from me and came to my studio and started doing fittings with me. And just that experience, I mean, I will start to say that I probably don't feel I've ever seen a more beautiful person. She was incredibly kind and nurturing. In that moment, you know, really believed in me and wanted the wind. And then

separately, I was doing some fittings when I'd come back. I'd met Miloiovovich and she was doing some fittings and Mila is like beyond a powerhouse and a wow and, you know, incredible. And then the really big moment was when Natalie Portman wore a piece of mind to the premiere of Star Wars. Oh, damn. That's huge. For the first one, right? And it was just big, it was a big, big moment. It was like her first big premiere for that. It was in New York. It was right after 9-11. And the next day, it was like on the cover of the major newspapers. And for a fashion or a celebrity image to make its way on the cover of a newspaper.

I think it was on like the backfold of the New York Times and it was on like the daily news and on the post. And like there still were delis on corners in New York. It wasn't all. There was no digital really, right? There was no like search the internet for the press stories. Like what you see when you wake up.

Were you freaking out? It was kind of a wild experience to see your dress in newsprint like on the newsstands like the next day. And how quickly after that does the industry start to pick up? It already had. there had been a piece that the New York Times had written. They saw a dress of mine like the year before. And they wrote an article called A Star is Born.

It said the best dress wasn't on a catwalk and it was like a four page article. And there was no press machine. On the in between of that and like I want to stay on the... I had to go back to school and was like hated because obviously like a big press article had come out. And I was in a very competitive, very creative environment. But sure, everybody... And what I was doing was like kind of pretty dress. I was doing an empowering pretty flirty dress that had edge to it and like a punk attitude or

sass to it, but it was way commercial to what was kind of being asked of me creatively to extend my mind at Central St. Martin's, which is like at the forefront of pushing the boundaries of fashion, which is something I really believe in. But I was just saying like, this is what's going to build the base for me to be able to expand my creativity in the way. the future. When you go back to school and you've had this huge moment of success, there's a lot of jealousy. I know the fashion industry, like you said, it's very competitive. What was that like? It was the best preparation for the fashion industry for real because like, I mean, St. Martin's, especially at that time, it was in the original, like, the OG building of St. Martin. So it's

like where Alexander McQueen had been, Stella McCartney. John Galliano, who's St. Chalayan, like, heroes of mine, rap feet, Ozbek, you know, like, it's the place, right? And it had this insane history. And people who had master degrees would go back into the bachelor program, honors program, to, like, relaunch, to launch their careers. So I was with, like, you know, I was like, what, 18,

with, you know, like 30, 40-year-olds, sometimes in our class, like, ready to launch their career. There was, like, a big. Gap. I was in my own world. They were they were wild with me. They challenged me. You couldn't leave work out, right? It would like disappear or get cut up or oh yeah. So what do you mean wild? Like they would sabotage. Oh yeah. You couldn't leave anything out. Probably not in your lock. I mean, it was hardcore. This is like hardcore, good training. But it's London. And London fashion to me is a great deal of creative camaraderie. And they do love.

expression. I was also already starting to interact into the fashion industry in London at the same time too. I kind of put blinders on and I kind of for the most part was happy go lightly. Like I'm inclusive, right? It was kind of friendly. I mean, there was like one girl who was in a grade older than me and I was just like, she has it. She is like, whoa, that girl can draw Like nobody's business. Did she end up being... She was dropped dead gorgeous. Like, they were so mean to her.

She was doing her finale collection. Like, I'm helping you. She's had the top highest internal positions in fashion in the industry for the last 20 years. I mean, at every major house in the world, she's like one of those guns to hire, right? Like, you know, people dream to have had a career like she's had and she has her own line at times. I mean, she can kind of do what she has it. It's just that it factor. And that was the beginning of me knowing that as well.

Like I know that part of my success in my career was also recognizing other talented people at very early stages that have that magic quality. Because I had no marketing dollars. But if I saw somebody in a small film or knew a young actor and just took that chance. Before they have that come up. Before they have that. Who were some of those people that you saw that have become? Many people.

I mean, wow. Julia Garner. I mean, you know, that was like taking her to her first mecgala, helping produce her like a small short film she was in really early on. I mean, that I'm so many, so many models, so many people, I'm trying to think a lot of people. That you just would see and say that person's going to be somebody. Yeah. Or I get brought somebody. I mean, bringing, I mean, Emerita on her first Emmys. What is the quality you think those people have that you recognize? What is the trade? There's no, there's no formula.

It's a magic nebulous aura that, and I can't, I can't, it's something I can't, you can't describe it. You know, I mean, sometimes people talk about like the Bill Clinton glow. It's real. I've seen it. Like the Bill Clinton glow after he gets. I was like, whoa, the goddamn man is like glowing with an aura in the room. Wait, well, hold on. The Bill Clinton glow after he gets a blow drop from Monica.

I don't know what are you talking about? No, not that. No, because Bill was a magnetism. Yeah. A magnetism to him. He's a smooth guy. Real. Some people have energy fields that are magnetic. It's like charisma.

Yeah, it's like charisma plus. It's star quality, right? You can't create, real create star quality. Like there can be the most beautiful people in the world, but they just don't have that star quality. It's just a thing, right? It's like it's something inside that comes out. It can make people be attracted to something that maybe alternatively or stereotypically wouldn't be beautiful. Like, who knows? What is beauty? Anyhow, right? Like, that's so subjective. I feel like in an exciting way we're living in a time right now where those ideals are breaking down. And I think that's really good. I think it's really interesting. Like, that is like weirdly this pull in social media right now where it's like both ways, right? It's like these ideals are placed on that are really unhealthy, unattainable and unsustainable. But then at the same time, we're giving voice. to the ability for people to have confidence in some places of self-acceptance, ideals of other forms of beauty, which to me culturally are there, right? You go to other countries. People have other ideals of beauty. Social media kind of brings it in and maybe filters it as like this is like what this should look like or that should look like. But at the same time, it's also giving voice to individuality that I think is interesting too.

With the career that you have, is there a recipe of manifestation, visualization, is there things that you've done that you look back on that you can pinpoint and tell us that you've done to create? You created your own future. How did you do that? I knew. I mean, it's hard. I have part of perspective of this. My mother and sister will say, Zach, you knew.

Like, you were like, I'm going to build a luxury fashion brand. And here's how we're going to do it. I don't know how I even thought or knew of this and had really strong. strong ideas about a barometer of kind of how you do it, right? Or like, I need a show. Even that, like, I need to do a runway show. This is how we're going to put it together. I mean, we did this, like, pasting, obviously a lot of people donated their times,

but you have like a vision. You're like, this is what it's going to be, whether it's about creative expression. I mean, I was really, it was really important to me in 2001 to be representing different women's character and talking about personality and how clothing brings out that creative personality and embraces it and different age women, different body types,

all different backgrounds of colors and races. That was really, that message to me was really important. And I think I had to wait like 18 years for that to come into like popular culture of fashion. And in fact, I think, sadly, if I have to be retro-stice to look at myself, I think at moments in my career, like, that just got beaten the hell out of me. Like, really, like, it was hard. Because you were trying to fit in what was-

I just had to at a certain point. It was like, this is amazing. It's fabulous. But, like, no, you can't have, you know, like, these are the standards of what fashion is. And, like, you want to be taken seriously, like, you have to use these kind of cookie cutter models. And I was just like, my whole original vision was. so attuned. And then I kind of got like fashionized for a while. It doesn't mean that I wasn't expressing or forming creative visions. It's just now looking back at it. I'm like, well, damn,

that was like so right on for where we're at today. It was kind of ahead of itself. And because internet didn't exist then, and I really entered fashion when there was like the system, right? I got to see the peak in a way of like the fashion system before online and the internet kind of broke into that and changed the game completely. Like how reviews were done. I mean, reviews were like hardcore. Like things don't get reviewed today. Things get described. Even as a kid at 21 like New York Times like they're going to come for your clothing.

And I kind of was at the forefront of like young designers. Like there weren't young design. There wasn't a generation of. of young designers. And I came on with this, like, strong, you know, I was like peppy. I was, like, really with, like, a strong gusto, right? I was, like, going to go for it. It was kind of, like, survival or not.

I mean, there was no trust fund. I was, like, going for it. Like, I had to do this and make this happen for myself. And then I brought my family into it. So there was, like, that responsibility and a whole community of friends. Like, we're going to go for this. So I had to make it work. So it was just, like, yeah, you had to, like, fit the mold.

And like if somebody's saying, like, we're going to take you on, but you got to use like these kind of models or this is what a collection looks like or we'll pick up your collection and make you a viable business, but you have to make this pant at this price point and this color. And can you make like the easy top that's at this, you know, it starts designing into a box. It changes it. It becomes, it's a creative vision that becomes a business. And that goes full circle saying, I wish that maybe I'd had a little. bit more time. And I don't live with any regrets. Let me just say that. I've been through hell and back, been celebrated, been all of it, you know, many times over. But I do wish I'd had a little bit more time. And the resources, you know, and not crazy resources, just like

the beginning research I had, which was like a-sower and one pattern maker, just to like take from like the second and third collection to just develop a little bit more before all the, a sudden I had to do like become global distribution of a brand because it happened that fast. Do you feel people that are, or especially maybe younger people that are thinking about breaking into this now, maybe have a little more time and optionality because some of these publications don't control so much of the area? Correct.

And they have social media to get their message directly out there to the consumer. You don't have to rely on the big. That is huge. I tell that to so many young creators. I say use your platforms. Like build your world. Stick to it. You don't have to budge.

you can always, you know, there's always that moment. In your world there was gatekeepers. Yeah. There were, it was all gate. I mean, it was ropes, gatekeepers, you name. I don't even, you know, know how many padlocks, you know, to fit this a Rubik's Cuban to like how to how to survive. And because I was learning that and have a kind of at the same time performative punk quality just to me inherently, especially at that time, starting to be celebrated. I think that I got, I was like a target, I was like an easy target, right?

So I got a lot of hits and I feel proud that I think that I was able to kind of break through in this way, which in a sense, I think opened up a lot of doors for an industry to build like a young designer industry and hopefully have also allowed a lot of other people to believe and dream. Right? And I think that then later being on TV on Project Runway for like seven years, which was something originally brought to me when it was in an original inception. How long has that show been going? Forever.

I did the show for like a six year streak as a judge after Michael left the show as a judge. But that became a really, at that point I was ready to share a message about creativity on a larger scale globally. That makes sense. And that felt good. And I was like, okay. And I think now it's like hitting for people later, like with many years now not off the show being like, oh yeah, you were really, we really appreciate that you were about creative process and about supporting that. And people rewatching the show and young viewers.

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That's T-R-M-R-M-A.com slash Skinny 40. Don't miss out on this incredible offer. We produce a lot of stuff. And what I always say, like when people, People come and their first question is like, how do I make money and like, how do I do this? I'm like, it's really the wrong question. Yeah. Right? Like, I think if you nail to your point the creative process and you build an audience or a demo that actually cares about the quote unquote art that you're putting out in the world,

like the other stuff kind of takes care of itself. But I think people are so fixated now on the business of it all. And they kind of missed the whole point, which is like if you create something that people love and identify with, the other stuff is actually easy. But if you focus on the other stuff first, It holds you back. Yes. It can. It can hold you.

But I totally agree. I think there's a lot of easy ways to make a quick buck in this world. Yeah, I know. And I always tell people like we do. There's other platforms for that. For sure. We do this show, you know, we're doing it for a long time. But I tell people like what they don't understand is we would do it for free in the sense

that I like meeting interesting people and talking about their life and figuring out what makes them tick and all these things. And yes, it's great. It's turned into a business in many regards and it stemmed other things. But like the intention from the beginning. from the beginning was to have a creative outlet where we got to just sit down and have these conversations. And to be honest, the other stuff is kind of taken care of itself because of that. My first thought was I wanted to make what was in my imagination. It wasn't like I had an entrepreneurial

spirit. Don't get me wrong. That came through there, through necessity. But the real thought was like, what is the vision, right? What do I want to make? What do I imagine my my dream person? wearing. When you said earlier that you've been through hell and back, what are you referring to with the hell? Oh, gosh. I mean, beyond years of back and forth of being in fashion,

out of fashion on the brink of a business that was a success of, you know, of kind of of having, you know, incredible sales, having a drop off of sales. I mean, And fashion is like a crazy yo-yo.

It's fickle. It's fickle. It's fickle. In high fashion, you know, before I started my business, a very, very smart man in business said there's two things I won't invest in, which is fashion and weather. You know, somebody who like, you know, literally like owns the tides. And I thought, oh, gosh. Is that because in your field, like, some designers and things are hot for the moment and the next season, somebody else's hot and during that season, like, you can't...

Yeah, there's nothing you can do. And also just, it's expensive. I also think... Material's expensive. Like, we don't realize that, like, fabric was, like, currency for, forever. What you think is fashionable. Like, holding a yards of fabric where, like, what you would gift for, like, a wedding. It just became, like, something that can be pumped out or, you know, like, made at a price

that can be kind of... And, you know, where you can cut it and kind of make a margin on it. can now, but, you know, it's, it there's, there's as a result to that, which is our planet. And I imagine if something goes out of style, it's not like a, you know, a supplement company where it's like eventually it'll sell. It's like if it's out of style, then maybe. No, it's like, it's like having groceries on a shelf. But it's also, it's, it's, it's up to interpretation. Because what you think is fashionable, he might not think is fashionable. That's the problem is it's, it's like art. It is art. Yeah, it's the problem and it's also the beauty of it.

Yes. Yes. But I can imagine it be hard to run a product based business when, there's all those different dynamics involved. And a brand can be a personality. So people can just not like a personality or like a person or, you know, I don't jealousy or like people don't like something's hyped or if they don't discover it, then they're not the people. It is like so crazy. And then also just the flow, ebb and flow of running a business at a young age.

And, you know, scaling a business being in relationship to the economy. I mean, you can't, you're not controlling the market. You don't know if the market's, you know, going to have like a big bumper crash or what the hell do you do? As if you're running a business and it's like on trajectory. For people whose fortays are maybe not fashion. Yeah. But they want to up level their fashion. Yeah.

They want to look at it. They don't know what to do. What are some basic things you would tell people just to dress well? I mean, to me, to dress well, I think shoes. I think shoes are like your starting base. Okay. Like a good comfortable shoe because you have to be able to walk. Like there's nothing worse than somebody in like a crazy shoe and can't walk.

Unless that's like your fetish or thing. Some people like that. But I think a good shoe is like your foundation. So I think whatever that is is really key. I think great shirting is like a basic, like a really nice shirt. What's a really nice shirt? What's a really nice shirt? Like something crisp.

I'm not promoting any brands here. I'm just saying like a crisp. shirt, like the right proportion collar. Okay. I think is important. The right proportion collar. Yeah. Well, you look at like the shape of your face. Like when you're making putting, when you're dressing without getting too abstract, think about like what in scale. I think that's okay, right? It looks good on your proportion, right?

If I have a small head, which I do and I have these giant collars. You're going to look goofy. Right. That makes sense. But maybe you're going for maybe like goofy is hot on you. I don't know. It depends. Like everybody is their thing. But you've got to figure that out. I think a great pair of jeans. Have your casual gene and have your more like dress-up gene. But I think like a good shirt, a good shoe, a good pair of jeans, I almost think you can go anywhere today in the world.

You can build on it. You can build or you can put a leather jacket with it. Or a hat. Or a hat. You could put a blazer on it. You know, you're feeling like extra special and you can put a tie with it. I think proportions of tie for a man are really important. I think like often people wear like crazy bulky ties,

and that kind of looks weird, but you know, it's always, but then like a skinny tie can kind of look the right look. If like the lapel's too big, it can look a little creepy. But it's like a balance, right?

It's just finding that and trying. I mean, I think trying on your wardrobe, I think for a woman having like one great base LBD, What's an LBD? Little black dress. Oh, right. Yeah, right.

I mean, that's always like that staple, right? You can dress that up. You can do it like more casual. You can like glam it up more if you need to do that. It's like really what feels right and comfortable on you. And then good underwear. Good underwear. I'm not like a big underwear wear.

You don't wear underwear? Not always. Yeah, it's like so much work. I wear bras. Okay. But you like your bras? Yeah, I like my bras. Okay, well, that's underwear.

Yeah, I like your bras. Okay, I don't know. Like, good foundation is super important. You're a perfect person to ask this as a term in terms of proportions. Or maybe you're not, but I think you are. She had recently removed her implants, which she's been talking about. And I always told her, listen, loved you the way. But I was thinking, I think when people design, it may not be designing for that proportion.

Is that correct? Depends, right? I mean, designer clothing, a lot of it is not designed. for women with curves. My success was that I love bodies, right? That was a big part of the success of my business, I think. I don't know if it was necessarily right for the high fashion industry, but for my business, like, I love all body types,

and I designed for women with curves, right? And that's why it worked all around the world and worked, you know, in America. A lot of brands do not, right? It's like really seems to be hard. I just don't understand that. I love women's bodies. I love curves.

I love sensuality. I don't know. I like to. Some people, some fashion designers do. Some don't. Yeah, I don't know what to say.

Like, I love people. I like women. I like their bodies. You like big tits, small tits, no tits. Whatever.

Yeah, whatever it is. Little tits. Of course. Like, come on. Big dick, small dicks. Whatever the size,

it doesn't matter. All right. He designs for everything. I don't mean, please. Like, it's my, job as a creator to be able to be open to anything.

When you look at your business, what are some tangible tips that you can give our audience if they want to start their own business? I think in terms of starting a business, once it's like going, right, once you have your, first you've identified as we spoke earlier, like what is the vision? What do I want to make? And that is key, right? It has to be pretty pure, authentic. I think market test is really.

important like guerrilla marketing, word of mouth marketing is key, just to test the product. Before you start pouring money, big money into it to scale something, I think it's really important to kind of feel the water. So like friends, like if you have a product and you can, and you have the ability to try to sample it or you have to lend one product, like do round tables. Like, I have this water bottle. Like, let's all try it. Let's hold it. Let's discuss it.

Let's get all the feedback. Then you've got to trust your own instincts, but it's important to do that as much as possible. Once you have that, I think the beginning stage is like take it slowly and scaling. Right? I think, you know, right now we're living in like a unicorn business time. Go off. You know, again, it's a quick fix.

It's okay. It can be great. Like, who doesn't want to get rich quick, right? I guess that's idea. But that's not necessarily integrity. It might not make happiness. Like, I think you got to really decide that you love the build. That is great advice.

You have to love the build. Like loving creative process, loving the build. And the process. And the nitty gritty and not liking every iteration. You're not going to, but it's like you got to get into it. it a little like you got to enjoy it like I think that's really important I also think that in some ways you everybody wants like that big infusion to like scale something quickly and I kind of think now it's important to no one opportunity is right to infuse but I also believe

it's really important that you can kind of scale a business profitably as you you go. And have that steady base and feet. Yeah, I think speaking of unicorns, it's like, I think people have figured out that maybe you shouldn't buy a billion dollar company that's losing $200 million a year. Maybe. Who are you referring to? No, no, I'm just saying like there's someone.

There's a lot of that out there too, right? That's like a big part of venture capital and how this all works. We just had a big venture capitalist on the show and we were talking about like even just the way they analyze things now. And there was a period of time when like that was the thing. and maybe quote unquote was in fashion. But I think people now are like, it doesn't matter if it goes a little slow

where we want to buy like sustainable, substantial efficient things. I think it's really, really key. I mean, you know, fashion's quick, right?

You want to jump when it's there. But I think that, I think people going into my fashion industry specifically, like it's expensive. There's just no doubt. Like, it's not a one idea thing. I mean,

it could be like a spank. But it takes time. Like building and building a luxury something in luxury and building something what we call a brand. I think like a real brand can take a lifetime. Before you go, tell our audience what you think

the secret to longevity in this industry is because you've had a very long strategic career. The secret to longevity. Yeah, I mean, you've had staying power. Yeah, I think authenticity. That sounds like a little corny, but I think, let's see, I think authenticity is really important.

I think resilience. Okay. Resilience. The secret to staying power is resilience, authenticity, and heart. A lot of those people who were mean in fashion school don't have those three things. So I'm going to guess they don't have longevity. I don't know. I hope they're happy.

No comment. They're not gardening and grounding. I wish them the best. What are you working on right now? Where can everyone find you, pimp yourself out? Wow. You can find me on social media on Zach Posen at Instagram. I'm working on few cool projects. I worked on some cool costumes for an episode of the new season, hopelessly coming out of feud soon about Truman Capote. I got to reimagine the famous black and white ball just for the leading actresses of this very important moment in scene.

And it was an incredible experience working with Gus Vincant, who was directing an incredible, illustrious list of some of the most iconic actresses of our time playing some very famous legends and social women of the late and mid-60s. It sounds like you got to do what your dream is, which is all different types of people. Fantasyland. I had a blast and also to reimagine history and bring glamour. So that should be coming out in the new year. And I'm excited, very excited for that. And it was an honor to work with Ryan Murphy, who brought me into the project. And it was a cool thing that he, you know, called and said, let's do this. And his incredible right hand and producer Lou, who does his costumes and just getting to see her whole world and what she built for a whole season of this show.

It's just remarkable. And, you know, maybe I'll be having my own line again. And maybe I'll be working another brand. and I hope I can bring my love and joy and passion and style to a larger population again. Ryan Murphy reminds me of you in the sense that he's sort of done for television, what you've done for fashion and the way that he's included all different walks of life. He's very diverse with his casting. And the style is very distinct, right?

Like when you see a Ryan Murphy probably, he's very distinct. It's different. He's amazing. Yeah. Amazing. One of the great Imagineer. Imagineers and storytellers of our time. Yeah, absolutely.

Zach, thank you for coming on. What an interview. Thank you, Zach. Before you go, do not forget about Black Friday, Cyber Monday. This is the time to stock up on your gifts. Head to shop skinnyconfidential.com and get all the deals.