Zac Posen on Designing the Golden Hour

Zac Posen’s Vision for Wheeldon’s Iconic Work

San Francisco audiences are no strangers to Christopher Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour. It was, after all, created right here in our studios for the 2008 New Works Festival and has since been performed to critical acclaim around the world. We’re celebrating its return to this season’s repertoire with a fresh visual identity for the costumes, designed by Zac Posen, EVP & Creative Director of Gap Inc.

The American fashion designer known for his glamorous, modern designs and red-carpet gowns rose to prominence in the early 2000s, garnering acclaim for his craftsmanship and blend of contemporary aesthetics with timeless elegance.

We caught up with him just before the premiere to learn more about his inspiration.

SAN FRANCISCO BALLET: Where did you take your inspiration when ideating these new costumes?

ZAC POSEN: It’s an honor to work with such a prestigious and incredible company. I’m deeply inspired by the incredible nature of our city—the sunshine, the change, how the water and the land affect the sky, and the movement and the emotion. When this opportunity came my way, I jumped at it and thought, what an amazing moment to capture the feelings that I’m getting in conjunction with the beauty of the choreography, artistry, and movement.

SFB: How does the concept of the “golden hour”, the period shortly after sunrise or before sunset when the sunlight is softer, warmer, and more diffused, play into the designs?

ZP: We built these costumes by playing with different tonalities of the movement and the incredible color palette of the sky of San Francisco. We’re testing different ombré techniques of colorations to match the inspiration of the ballet.

The SF Ballet Costume Shop has done a remarkable job interpreting the sketches and the draping into the first set of prototypes for the dancers. The movement is beautiful. I’m really excited.

SFB: What is your focus in reinterpreting the costumes for an existing ballet?

ZP: It was important to me, when interpreting the costumes and the many productions that had been done before, and Chris’ original inspiration from Gustav Klimt to a sort of non-narrative narrative, was what if with the new interpretation came from a feeling rather than a theme? And something that really highlighted the beauty of the movement of the dance and let that be the storytelling, the depth, the texture, the forms and shapes. I love pieces that have real dimension and storytelling within each detail and real “costume costume”. Sometimes when looking at contemporary ballet, there’s something interesting that still has a little romance but also has movement and form and makes the dancers look incredible.

SFB: Now that you’re heading up Gap Inc. as Creative Director here in San Francisco, how do you find the artistry of the city?

ZP: When I got the call to do these costumes, it was such a thrill and an honor. I was brand new coming to San Francisco to work at Gap Inc. It was important to me to bring excitement, to bring a spotlight to the incredible arts here in San Francisco. Historically, the city has such a great history with the arts: performing arts, visual arts, experimental arts, even tech arts. I really wanted to honor that and bring my skillset and really feel the honor of being able to collaborate and story tell together and bring attention to San Francisco.

I can feel the excitement of this moment for San Francisco is about to have this whole new renaissance as it has had many times in its history. Any city, any arts culture goes through many cycles and I feel like we’re at the beginning of this exciting cycle and I feel honored that I happened in my life to be here at this moment.

See the world premiere of Posen’s designs onstage in Cool Britannia Feb 13–19

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