This was a short, sharp shock of a show from Marc Jacobs: just four minutes long, but with plenty of ideas about how to wear color this fall (brightly and in unexpected mixes), how to layer jewels (obviously faux and in big pile-ups at the neck or accessorizing a belt at the waist), and how to go bare and short—like, really short—with opaque bodysuits and stockings underneath your bustiers and minis. And don’t forget your lipstick.
Since his last show in February, Jacobs’s company has been acquired by WHP Group and G-III, in a deal worth $850 million. They’re very different bedfellows than LVMH, his previous owners, though Sidney Toledano his longtime champion at the French conglomerate, was in attendance as usual and seated in the front row.
So, was it one last hurrah for the way things were, or a fresh beginning? That was the question as a voice (possibly the designer’s own) asked everyone to take their seats. Thirty-one looks and no finale later, Jacobs kept it enigmatic, making himself scarce backstage (we went to check, we always do), but his show notes alluded to his new circumstances. “Amidst challenge lay purpose and through change lay possibility,” they read, echoing his signature Instagram refrain #gratefulnothateful. Jacobs is choosing “light, shine… and joyful exuberance.”
The ultra minis picked up on a loose thread from his last show, but where that one struck an almost dirgeful note (a kind of goodbye, in retrospect), this one waxed electric with opaque fabrics that fairly gleamed and see-through ones that had an effulgence of their own. Their prismatic effects were heightened by the second-skin tops and tights worn underneath.
The longtime Marc Jacobs watchers who give his shows the feeling of class reunions will make connections between these clothes and the cellophane-y nurses’ uniforms of a nearly 20 years old Louis Vuitton collection, or the 1980s-flavors of a fall 2009 MJ show I described at the time as an “antidote to the doom and gloom” of the Great Recession. The truth of the matter is, young Gen Z shoppers know his name best from the beauty bar now, so it makes perfect sense to lead with color.
But exuberance comes with an edge here, it always has and always will. The new owners shouldn’t expect Jacobs to play it straight. More of the looks than not were pantsless in a sort of Edie Sedgwick-via-Charli XCX way. Not just the embroidered tanks too abbreviated to be called dresses, but even the “lady” jackets with their scrolls of shining embroidery and tinselly trim along the lapels came sans culottes.
This was classic Jacobs: referential, self-referential, and just a tad defiant, but also touching on trends we saw in the fall collections for sheer, stretchy, sexy clothes. That may be the big surprise here: the new Marc Jacobs—he’s on message.
