Marc Jacobs, we love you. We love you for everything you’ve done and everything you have yet to dream up. You are an innovator, a purveyor of all that’s fantastically unique, expressive and alive. We love you behind the scenes, we love you taking a bow on the runway, we love you in the fall, winter, spring and summer. Plain and simple: we adore you – and in our eyes you can do no wrong.
So – as an often over-analytical writer and tremendous fan, this Marc Jacobs piece has proven to be quite challenging for me. I’ve wrestled with different thoughts, emotions, opening lines. No matter which path I chose, it just never seemed quite enough to capture the essence of my feelings for someone I sincerely revere. I decided it’s best to start here: Marc Jacobs, you had me at “grunge.”
By “grunge” I mean Jacobs’ infamous 1992 womenswear collection for Perry Ellis. It was collection that won him the cheers of the critics – including the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Womenswear Designer of the Year Award – and also incited a negative stir (and his ultimate dismissal from the label). But it was this very “stir” that launched the career of the award-winning Parsons grad, catapulting him to fashion icon stature.
In 1993, Jacobs and business partner Robert Duffy launched their own licensing company, and a year later, the initial launch of the Marc Jacobs signature line came to fruition. In 1997, a deal was signed with LVMH, leading Jacobs and Duffy to inject their “youthful vision” into the Louis Vuitton brand while the powerhouse, in turn, backed the growth of the Marc Jacobs brand.
Soon after, the Marc Jacobs Soho store opened its doors, and by 1998 the Marc by Marc Jacobs line became a reality. By 2000, menswear line Marc Jacobs Men launched, in addition to his signature handbag line. Marc Jacobs Perfume came shortly thereafter (the bottle which was supplied by my mom’s company!) and numerous awards followed suit. Even an adorable children’s line, Little Marc, made its way onto the shelves, as did eyewear timepieces, tablewear…
Needless to say, fashionistas and celebrities (by the way, the likes of Kim Gordon and Vincent Gallo are friends; Sofia Coppola is his ‘muse’) alike stick to Marc Jacobs like bees on honey. And why wouldn’t they? There’s nothing sweeter than the taste of nostalgia, which – considering Jacobs’ vintage-inspired lines with girly detailing and quirky characteristics – truly define the essence of his work. An homage to the past, a retro-chic sensibility – not skimpy and sexy, but unique, eye-catching, special, ironic. According to Jacobs, “what I prefer is that even if someone feels hedonistic, they don’t look it. Curiosity about sex is much more interesting to me than domination. … My clothes are not hot. Never. Never.” (New York Magazine, August 2005)
Jacobs currently spends most of his time in Paris, where he remains the Creative Director for Luis Vuitton. While there, he has collaborated with renowned artists like Stephen Sprouse, Takashi Murakami and most recently American artists Richard Prince and Kanye West.
No matter where he is or what he’s doing, Marc Jacobs is and will remain one of our favorite innovators. And on that note, I must reiterate: Marc Jacobs, we love you. We love you a whole damn lot.
Marc by Marc Jacobs 2009 Fall Collection
Marc Jacobs Women’s Spring 2009 Collection
