Paris Fashion Week 2019: working for Zac Posen SS20.

Fashion Month SS20 ended this year in Paris - the Fashion capital of the world. Paris Fashion week ran from 23rd September 2019 until the 1st October 2019.

I travelled to Paris to work for the renowned Zac Posen brand as a fashion intern. My job role was to be a marketing and showroom assistant for their market showcase during the most paramount week for the director of sales. Eager to spend as long as I could in Paris, I travelled at the start of PFW on a 5:30 am flight from Manchester to Charles de Gaulle airport.

Zac Posens' heart is focused primarily on his outstanding evening wear. Anyone who follows his couture gowns and sister brands recognise the truth that Zac is an absolute genius when it comes to garment construction and technology. His brand was founded in 2001 when he was just 20 years old; and over the past 18 years Zac has delivered extraordinary gowns for royalty, celebrities and for celebrity red carpet events including exceptional met gala dresses annually. This year, Zac designed several dresses for the gala. Including, one for American horror story actress Billie Lourd, one for The Vampire Diaries actress Nina Dobrev; one for Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone and another for Supermodel Jourdan Dunn.

And lest we forget the 2016 met gala dress for Claire Dane for the fashion and technology theme which resembled a gown fit for Cinderella. The gown took 600 hours to make and lit up entirely and resembled a million stars. I have been awe at his creations for over a decade. His wedding reception gown for princess Eugenie embodied his exceptional eye for movement and the female figure. Featuring an remarkable bodice and draping. He builds strong relationships with his clients which helps towards his brand continuity by solidifying his brand loyalty. He has a way of sculpting gowns for the female form. His dresses are truly a work of art.

Image: Jordan Dunn, 2019 met gala (Harpersbazaar.com, 2019).

Whilst working for Zac along with 6 other interns we worked on the SS20 Zac Posen gowns and the sister brand Zac by Zac Posen (or as the HQ gals call it ZZP) across two adjacent showrooms. The showroom was located in two fabulous apartments in Trocadero with an insane view of the Eiffel tower from every window. We visual merchandised the glamorous apartments so that the ball gowns were neatly and beautifully presented across both living spaces.

We would start each day that week at 8am to a continental breakfast of coffee croissants and pain au chocolats served with strawberries, honey and raspberries on silver platters. Later followed by lunch of lobsters and steak from a gorgeous Trocadéro based restaurant. We would dine together in the showroom's dining hall whilst we were waited on by several waiting staff like a scene from Downton Abbey. This was quite a surreal experience considering I was staying in the smallest hotel room I've ever encountered and travelling to work by the overcrowded Metro across many arrondissements.

Taken at the Arc De Triomphe wearing a faux leather skirt from Riverisland, Shoes and top from Asos and Sunglasses from Chanel.

I assisted the director of sales and the director of wholesale for Zac Posen and ZZP. Each day we would Visual merchandise and tidy the show room, pressed the gowns, dressed the models during fittings and scheduled meetings for potential buyers. Our main responsibility would be to assist buyer appointments. Buyers would be international and have a set time to visit. In a typical visit, we would offer clients a drink and take any dresses the client wanted to see back-stage to the model to try on. There was a particular order in which the garments had to be tried on. Each of Zac's dresses have built in corsetry and had to be fastened in a set order. The corsets and intricate boning which is invisible from the outside is what makes his dresses so breath taking. The clients all wanted to see one dress in particular, a white ball gown which was adorned with red and white glitter. The directors stated they had more ball gowns at the head office but they couldn't fit more than two in their luggage which is not surprising as the gown took four people to lift and move and getting the model into the dress was an impossible task.

One afternoon between clients, we took the two models in teams down to the Trocadéro view point of the Eiffel Tower for photographs for social media. I sent my images to their PR team in New York and my images of one of the models in a stunning ZZP floral gown were used on their e-commerce and on their Instagram. The days consisted of 13 hours and also included a lot of time spent neatening garments, organising the order and swatch files, managing Zac Posen's Instagram stories, curling each others hair with a waving wand and lying on one of the beds between appointments which was shared between

Taken in Trocadéro wearing a silk midi skirt and my Dad's black dinner shirt.

two models and six interns respectively. Although I envisioned nights out in the French capital, the reality was that by the time I got back to my hotel at 11pm I would just slump into bed ready to leave the hotel at 6am the following day. Although the days were long I absolutely loved the environment at Paris Fashion Week. The gowns were beautiful, the interns were lovely and everyone in Paris were dressed effortlessly chic. I even saw Cardi B wearing Richard Quinn which was later dubbed by Vogue to be her "boldest look yet"

During my stay, I spent time outside of work with my work friend Paula and her beautiful mother and sister having lunches, shopping, and visiting numerous landmarks including the Sainte-Chapelle, Arc de Triomphe and Louvre. I also spent a lot of time shopping and visiting designer boutiques including the Chanel beauty boutique which is a must for anyone who adores Chanel cosmetics and powerful VM as much as I do. My biggest personal accomplishment was travelling and having evening meals by myself. I went from never going abroad or on a flight alone to venturing to nearby cities for day trips such as Versailles. I even spent time getting pictures for Instagram by setting up a tripod whilst very aware that someone could run past and snatch my phone at any given moment.

Taken on the balcony of the ZZP showroom wearing a top from Lavish Alice and a skirt from Oliver Bonas.

My time at the show room was breath taking, the views from the balconies alone were mesmerising. One of the key tasks was monitoring the look book which contained fabric swatches and garment construction details for each piece as well as for garments not at the show room that were also apart of the SS/20 Collection. The book included embroidery and embellished swatches of tulle and contained fabulous textures. My time at Paris Fashion Week was very aspirational to me as I saw a different world that I wanted to be apart of; as did the other interns as we discussed celebrity sightings; and kept up to date with all the runway looks from catwalks such as YSL; and Chanel with their imposter on the runway. All of which were happening in our time just mere meters beyond the apartment. Working Paris Fashion week was truly a once in a lifetime opportunity for me and one I would gladly do again.

From left to right: Shoes and Handbags from the ZZP SS/20 Collection, Tulle maxi ball gown dress from the Zac Posen collection, Garments from the Zac Posen SS/20 Collection.

References:

Allaire, C., 2019. Cardi B Wins Paris Fashion Week With Her Boldest Look Yet. [online] Vogue. Available at: <https://www.vogue.com/vogueworld/article/cardi-b-paris-fashion-week-richard-quinn> [Accessed 4 October 2019].

Davis, J., 2019. How Zac Posen created five of the Met Gala's most innovative looks. [online] Harper's BAZAAR. Available at: <https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/celebrities/red-carpet/a27401585/zac-posen-met-gala-red-carpet-designs/> [Accessed 2 October 2019].

One of my Images used for Zac Posen's Instagram.