Marc Jacobs is a man who takes stock of his past. His show notes say as much: “Memories, both buttery and beautiful, are a faculty of purpose, influencing present and future actions.
For the first time in two years we were back at the Park Avenue Armory, once again, Jacobs was the venue for the show. Tonight, the late artist Robert Therrien’s Berdinganian folding table and chairs from this spring 2024 show shrunk to life-size, and stood in the far corner of the vast space. Standing on the table was a small painting, begun only last week, of a daisy, its petals drawn like scientific specimens or pinned like capsicums to a scrapbook. A walk across the Kochri is required to see the painting. From the distance of a single row of chairs where the audience sat, it was faintly small.
That seemed to be part of Jacobs’ point. The Internet may run on nostalgia, but our memories, like our dreams, are our own, and for the most part they are interesting only to us. Still, they make a life, and Jacobs seems to reconsider.
Bjork’s “Joga” on the soundtrack provided a clue. This song was released in 1997. It was the year that Jacobs was named Louis Vuitton’s first creative director, and marked the high point of his earlier American sportswear era, when he sent out v-necks, and button-downs, and straight skirts. Prime Little Suite ; and the shift dress adopted as a kind of uniform by a generation of fashion editors. I can promise this: I was crashing Marc Jacobs shoes around this time, and I longed to be one of those Marc Jacobs customers.
The middle decades have left their mark on Mark and fashion, of course, even as we’re in the midst of a ’90s revival, with Ryan Murphy JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bestie Kennedy. A love story Premiering next week. These days, to look at the late ’90s collections of Jacobs (and her designer partner, Bestie Kennedy’s employer Calvin Klein, included), many call them simple. Here the proportions were tweaked: the waist bands were loose – to slide your hands straight over the skirt, or to accentuate a mini height above the waist. Coats were worn front-to-back, with a row of buttons marching down the spine, and mushing on jackets and shirts flashed like it was made by AI. But even with all those clunky adjustments, these were a different kind of clothes than we’ve grown accustomed to from Jacobs of late.
After a lavish hiatus, Jacobs returned to the runway, with a taste for wild exaggeration, taking silhouette to extremes in the style of her designer icons, such as Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo. It was fashion as performance art, and it made great photos, but no one was wearing these pieces to the office, or on a first date. Tonight’s collection, though, got her heart pumping. Jacobs’ friend, the designer Anna Sui, exulted, “What a great show! The clothes can be worn.”
Michael Burke, chairman and CEO of LVMH America, and Sidney Toldano, senior advisor to Bernard Arnault, were both in the audience. LVMH is reportedly reinvesting in the Marc Jacobs brand after failing to sell Authentic Brands Group. There is a generation that has grown up on Jacobs who hasn’t been with him in half a decade, maybe more. I call it a long time stroll down memory lane.
