Marc Jacobs

This week started with a sensational Marc Jacobs fashion show in New York. The designer is in such a great creative place right now: he doesn’t have to prove anything to anyone, doesn’t engage in New York Fashion Week, and just creates at his own pace some of the finest work in his career. As he wrote in the latest collection’s powerful note, “we use fashion to embrace bold and courageous self-expression to articulate and showcase our inner selves, allowing us to freely explore and display our thoughts, desires, and identities in a deeper pursuit of joy, beauty and personal transformation“. This isn’t another press release talk; this absolutely and truthfully sums up not only Marc’s work and contribution to fashion, but himself.

The show lasted just six minutes. Jacobs fancies this short, sharp-shock format, starkly contrasting to his past, excessive outings that featured entire runway productions. This “less is more” approach really gives so much more – intensely more. On the runway, a mosaic of all-time American symbols, hyperbolised and exaggerated as if they were Claes Oldenburg sculptures: Marilyn Monroe in her iconic subway grate dress from “The Seven Year Itch“, Minnie Mouse in her red and white polka dots (they also felt very Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese artist Marc collaborated with at Louis Vuitton), and princess gowns out of a fairy tale. Hyper-pop and vivacious: a bold act of resistance towards all the socio-political disasters going on in the world – and especially, in the U.S.? Maybe. But maybe the designer wanted to rebelliously commit himself to pure joy. And then you had the yellow polka dot bikini, several sizes too big. The proportions in this collection were distorted to perfection. The miniskirts’ ultra-short lengths, and the arcing hemlines of knee-length skirts, especially when they were higher in front than in the back, made models look like giants. “The future remains unwritten,” the designer concluded in his note. And maybe that’s a good thing?

How about some of my beloved pieces from past Jacobs’ Runway collections?

ED’s SELECTION:

Marc Jacobs Bustier Linen Wool Strapless Mini Dress with Scarf

Marc Jacobs High-Neck Draped Sequin Mini Dress

Marc Jacobs Leather Engineered Draped Mini Skirt

Marc Jacobs Prince Of Wales Wool Cropped Blazer Jacket

Marc Jacobs High-Waist Lace Briefs

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Although Marc Jacobs presented his latest collection off-schedule, a couple of days before NYFW officially starts, yesterday’s line-up brought hope and optimism to the city’s state of the industry. Jacobs celebrates 40 years (!) of his brand, but the spring-summer 2024 line-up doesn’t read us a retrospective, but rather an exuberant, lively love letter to fashion. Walking tall, strong and gracious, like swans (both, the Central Park ones and the Truman Capote ones), in bouffant wigs, the models and the entire doll-house scene (featuring XXL table and chairs by artist Robert Therrien) felt like some sort of twisted fairy-tale. The collection itself was an exercise in exaggerated proportions. Knit sweaters abruptly cinched at the waist; floor-length mirrored ballgowns – those could definitely be worn by modern-day C.Z. Guests and Babe Paleys; supersized Venetia bags (the 2000s Marc Jacobs best-seller is back, better than ever); fluffy-looking tailoring. This is for the dollllllls! The designer sneaked a couple of references to his finest work (and a couple of Louis Vuitton nods are also here), but he also combined his design language with his subtle signifiers of his ultimate fashion heroes: Martin Margiela, Rei Kawakubo, Miuccia Prada. Jacobs never feared to admit he’s a fashion fan. To the tune of Philip Glass, the show ended dramatically as it started, with the doll-models walking out of open door at the end of the runway into the street. There was no finale – and we got a two-second glimpse of Jacobs before the vast space of Park Avenue Armory plunged into darkness. Here’s to next decades and decades of F-A-S-H-I-O-N!