64 DEFINING A NEW WOMAN AND A NEW GENERATION MARC JACOBS 65

Marc Jacobs is one of the few designers that the fashion press, buyers, and diffusionary markets pay close attention to each season for the direction and focus of the season. With the innate ability to tap into the mood and style of a generation, Jacobs delivers what

people want to wear and has become of one of the most influential designers of our age. ➜ INFLUENCED BY ◆ Comme des Garçons ◆ Halston ● André Courreges Rei Kawakubo’s influence Halston represents the In Fall 2003 for Marc could be felt in Jacobs’ essence of New York Jacobs as well as Louis Fall 06 collections for chic which Jacobs has Vuitton Spring 2000, KEY Louis Vuitton and in emulated in his use of Jacobs referenced the ● fashion designer Fall 06 and Spring 08 long languid shapes in his short crisp looks that ◆ fashion house Marc Jacobs’ shows Fall 2007 collection. Courreges was famous ■ art movement in the abstraction of for in the 1960s. A ❖ cultural influence form, silhouette, and typically sharp 1960s relationship of clothing Courreges design, left. to the body.

MARC JACOBS American (1963 New York) Attends Parsons Receives two Gold Thimble Awards, Perry Starts designing collections under his own Receives Council of Fashion Designers of School of Design in Ellis and Chester Weinburg as well as name, backed by Onward Kashiyama USA America, Perry Ellis Award for New Talent. At New York. Designer of the Year. Begins designing for Inc with favorable responses from the the time was the youngest designer to Ruben Thomas Inc. While still in school he fashion press and buyers. receive this prestigious award. sells a hand-knit collection of sweaters.

CHRONOLOGY 1981–84 1984 1986 1987

➜ INSPIRED ● Bruce ● Christopher Baily ● 4. 3.1. Phillip Lim Designers Nicole Noselli for Burberry Prorsum Like Jacobs, Lim often and Daphne Gutierrez Baily has been influenced uses multiple vintage of fashion label Bruce by Jacobs’ use of references (as seen, left). understand and decode utilitarian clothing as style the type of New York basics adding luxury to downtown chic that is create a desirable and omnipresent in all of fresh approach. Marc by Marc Jacobs’ shows.

“I like romantic allusions to the past: Marc Jacobs is a creative force that extends beyond any what the babysitter wore, what the traditional limitation such as market or price point, translating art teacher wore, what I wore during and synthesizing style impulses into a fresh perspective. As the creative director of Louis Vuitton based in Paris, his my experimental days in fashion when eponymous line Marc Jacobs in New York, Marc by Marc I was going to the Mudd Club and Jacobs, Marc Jacobs Men, Stinky Rat, Little Marc, and countless wanted to be a New Wave kid or a licensees all of which are sold internationally, Marc Jacobs has an overwhelming influence on the fashion industry. punk kid but was really a poseur. It’s the Tres chic His harshest critics have accused Jacobs of copying, styling, awkwardness of posing and feeling like I Utilizing a broad spectrum and generally not being original. The fact remains however of influences, Marc Jacobs was in, but I never was in. Awkwardness that a simple copyist could not set the tone for an entire combines a quintessential season by pulling together style impulses, mood, color, and Parisian chic with gives me great comfort.” American style icons to silhouette in a consistently fresh way that is heralded by the create collections that fashion press and consumers alike. Jacobs combines esoteric, are influential in their intellectual, philosophical concepts from art, design, and culture silhouettes, fabric, and color direction. Marc Jacobs and translates them in an original way into something that is

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Sexy sophistication Jacobs learned from Yves Saint Laurent, and in his collection for Louis Vuitton, Jacobs connected The art of transparency to the sense of sexual frivolity Marc Jacob’s Spring 08 show started with the finale first and then that Yves Saint Laurent perfected literally was shown backward as the collection was about varying in the 1980s, but gave it an ironic stages of being undressed to dressed. The emphasis on transparency self conscience slant as seen in and layers, (right) seemed to be a philosophical statement about this catwalk piece from the Louis how women use clothing in their manipulation of image, style,

Vuitton show, Fall 2009. or—more importantly—their sexuality. ➜ ❖ ■ INFLUENCED BY ● Claude Montana ● Elsa Schiaperelli Pop culture Contemporary art The strong shoulders and The 1930s designer’s Everything from films, Marc Jacobs is an avid bold shapes that were influence can be seen in music, style, and literature art collector and close signature styles of Claude the whimsy and sense of to high school marching friends with many artists. KEY Montana’s work from the humor that Marc Jacobs bands and Japanese The philosophical or ● fashion designer 80s were present in both routinely infuses into his Anime have influenced aesthetic concepts that ◆ fashion house the Louis Vuitton and shows. Marc Jacobs which he is attracted to in art ■ art movement Marc Jacobs collections helps him to translate a often are expressed in ❖ cultural influence for Fall 08. generational aesthetic. his fashion collections.

MARC JACOBS CONTINUED

Becomes Vice-president and Marc Jacobs and Robert Receives Council of Fashion Designers Jacobs resumes Appointed Creative Director to Receives Council of Fashion Jacobs checks into rehab for substance abuse. Design Director of Perry Ellis Duffy become Vice President of America’s Women’s wear Designer designing under his Louis Vuitton by LMVH. Receives Designers of America’s A fashion documentary Marc Jacobs & with business partner Robert and President of Tristen of the Year Award. Introduces the now own name in New Council of Fashion Designers of Accessories Designer of the Louis Vuitton by Loïc Prigent is filmed during Duffy serving as President. Russo as well as overseeing infamous “Grunge Collection” which York City. America’s Womenswear Designer Year Award. the creation of both the Marc Jacobs and the accessories collections. leads Perry Ellis Inc to fire him. of the Year Award. Louis Vuitton collections.

CHRONOLOGY 1988 1989 1993 1994 1997 1999 2007

➜ INSPIRED ● Derek Lam ● Behnaz Sarafpour ● Mui Mui / Prada ● Antonio Marras Fabrications and infatuations Lam uses cute Sarafpour pulls together Similar to Jacobs, for Kenzo Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough silhouettes in luxury an amalgamation of Muiccia Prada uses Marras has experimented of Proenza Schouler have been influenced fabrications (left) and historically referenced fabric, color, and shape with cultural references not only by Marc Jacobs’ infatuation with is often influenced by looks to create a new to add emphasis in conjunction with the 70s and 80s but his ability to define a trends that Marc Jacobs and contemporary look. and meaning to the silhouette shapes (left) generation’s sense of style and aesthetic. helps to set. deeper philosophical that suggest a modern The design team and Marc Jacobs have commentaries on idea of dress. similarly experimented with alternative image and sexuality. uses of fabrications; ignoring the traditional concepts of seasonably correct fabric.

approachable for women. As influential New York Times style X-GENERATION the process of design in a consistent aesthetic, while Marc columnist Kathy Horyn states: “[In Jacobs’ work] you see a Marc Jacobs, a member of the X-generation, has always been Jacobs has no problem moving from one idea to the next. To fashion that increasingly has its own identity...what Jacobs has influenced by growing up in New York City in the 1970s, his further confuse the path of inspiration, Jacobs blends several really done is not to exclude any method or idea that might love of the dance clubs, parties, and nightlife of the 1980s and different style snapshots into one collection. Throughout his be vital to him.” his mature appreciation of art and design. Music is always an career he has approached historical references from a 1960s, In the Loïc Prigent documentary Marc Jacobs & Louis important component of his creativity, from bands such as 1970s, or 1980s point of view, sometimes combining them Vuitton, Jacobs has a rather blithe attitude about elucidating his Sonic Youth to classical music such as Pachelbel’s Canon, Jacobs with a quintessential New York or Parisian chic only to shift concept or philosophy of creation and design as evidenced is said to listen to the same music repeatedly throughout completely to a Japanese focus on abstraction and philosophy. of his explanation that he “just likes things fucked up.” At the the design process. An early example of music’s influence Jacobs, similar to many of his generation, has a sentimental same time it is clear that a primary focus of his work is to on Jacob’s work is the grunge collection that he created for view of style symbols that he grew up with; since the look of make clothing wearable and approachable to all women: “I like Perry Ellis in 1993. Although the collection ultimately got the times are incidental in conveying a larger mood or feeling. to think that the clothes have a life after the show is over. I love him dismissed from his post as Design Director, Marc Jacobs Marc Jacobs’ interpretations of these fleeting impressions of an it when I see strangers wearing my clothes…” established himself as a translator of cool. entire generation become universal and therefore essential to Marc Jacobs seems to travel through fashion phases, focusing the design dialogue of our century. on an idea or a set of style problems that he needs to solve A model walks the runway at a 2009 Proenza Schouler show. and then moves on. There are some designers that approach

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