For years, Marc Jacobs had established himself as a showman of New York Fashion Week, stages extensive runway shows where the sets are as intricate as the clothes. A season would be there a post-apocalyptic beach; then, a large, pink house; Next, he might take you one night to the theater.
And while it was great for creating excitement and fascination from the fashion community, these dramatic fluctuations were not so helpful in establishing a foothold in the retail market. The business on the brand was shocking – the week after Donald Trump was sworn in in 2017, LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault something infamous said on a call that he was “more concerned about Marc Jacobs than the US president” – and demanded a serious reconsideration, a process described in a recent report by Lauren Sherman for Business of fashion. Out went over-the-top set, though the collections remained tightly packedthat staging dramatically.
Then the pandemic hit. The frugality of pre-Covid-19 Marc Jacobs’ shows were nothing compared to his return to the runway for his autumn collection 2021his first after taking one quarantined break from the creative process. He showed off the calendar and changed venues – from the Park Avenue Armory to the New York Public Library – and lined up a single row of metal folding chairs along a corridor. It was as simple as runways become. So he surprise-dropped its next collection via WeTransfer.
As it turns out, Jacobs does not need all that noise to make a statement. On Monday night, he set up his Fall 2022 runway in exactly the same way as the previous fall show, presenting a collection that is largely a continuation of the ideas he established at the time.
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Oversize shapes control the day, whether it’s chunky knit with extra long sleeves tied around the chest or earth – sweeping maxi skirts. This season’s bid for the linked disc motif are shrunken versions chained together to bikini tops and apron tunics, layered over mega-expanded pants. There is something moving in the styling movements that can be noticed as the models walked away, whether it was the buttons on an aqua-blue jacket worn from behind or a lightly bagged, transparent sock that was cut up under the slit on a skirt. Huge caps obscured the models’ faces – many of which were altered by dentures to give an alien-like appearance or mimic a side-shaved hairstyle – in what felt like a protective way. Similarly, there is an armor-like quality to the comically large tote bags. The Mary Jane platform has become something of a Jacob staple, and they are ubiquitous here in shades of black and white.
It’s pretty easy to see how these ideas will be translated into retail with a few minor adjustments: Reduce the proportions of a blazer here, cut the pink acid-washed denim ball skirt back to a wearable pencil style. But Jacobs makes it clear that he will ultimately never sacrifice his creative vision, no matter how the industry changes. “Creativity is essential to living,” he writes in his show notes, before concluding with a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche: “We have the art of not dying of the truth.”
See the entire Marc Jacobs autumn collection 2022 in the gallery below:
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