Zac Posen to Dress Downtown Hipsters

Designers have been rolling out lower-priced lines left and right in recent seasons as a result of varying factors (competition and the recession for starters). Now comes news that the latest household name within the industry to launch a diffusion line is none other than native New Yorker Zac Posen. He joins a roster of high-fashion designers with shiny new diffusion lines that already includes the likes of Doo-Ri Chung, Thakoon Panichgul, Richard Chai, and even recent Swiss Textile Design Award winner Alexander Wang.

Called Z Spoke, the more affordable line will debut at Saks Fifth Avenue come spring. The department store will be the exclusive retailer of the collection. Prices start at $75 for a t-shirt and cut off just shy of $700, which for feverish Posen fans warrants some serious celebrating (keep in mind Posen’s namesake collection typically retails in the ballpark of $900 to $12,000, with custom pieces as high as $20,000). The collection will consist of a “60-piece range, which is strong on separates such as knits, cotton shirting, blazers and pleated khaki shorts, as ‘minimalist and utilitarian’,” says Women’s Wear Daily (the latter being Posen’s own words). Think chic sportswear that’s in a genre all its own. “It’s not Zac-for-less, it’s not the little sister collection at all,” Posen explains, going so far as to call the collection “hipster.” In other words, think Zac Posen for ladies living in a loft on the Bowery as opposed to that penthouse overlooking the park.