Something chic, something shocking, something arty, something pop: Marc Jacobs breathes youthful wit into the luxury market.
Within moments of arriving at Louis Vuitton headquarters in Paris, I’m ushered into Marc Jacobs’ office. The “cool kid” of fashion has invited me to tag along with him while he prepares for his fall/winter 2009 shows in Paris and New York. Before our interview begins, he sets aside a sketch he has been working on. “I have to hurry up and finish this before I start my day at Vuitton,” he says. “It’s for Marc by Marc Jacobs.” The consummate multi-tasker, who has been the creative director at LV for the past 12 years, thrives on change. “I’m always moving,” he says, smiling. “I don’t want to lock myself inside a box with a label on it!”
That said, he has taken one of fashion’s iconic labels and transformed it from slightly outdated to sexy and glamorous. “When I first got here, my mission was to play with the monogram,” he explains. “I started by making the monogram invisible — it was sort of a gag. I was inspired by the Marcel Duchamp painting of the Mona Lisa, where he added the letters “L. H. O. O. Q.” Duchamp wasn’t the only painter to inspire Jacobs. Since he started working for LV, he has invited artists like Stephen Sprouse and Takashi Murakami to work with him. “An artist’s touch gives value to a prestigious label and breaks down the barriers between art and fashion,” he explains.
Jacobs gets up from the table to put on an Amy Winehouse CD. “The first album,” he points out, “not [the one with] ‘Rehab,’” just in case anyone is tempted to make a connection between the singer’s troubles and Jacobs’ own tribulations with drugs and alcohol. After two stints in detox, Jacobs’ new drink of choice is Vittel water and his new addiction is working out. He also sticks to a dairy-free diet, dyes his hair jet black and sports a new signature look: a short Comme des Garçons kilt, black Doc Martens, big diamonds in his ears and a gold Rolex.
Jacobs is 46, but his aura is much younger. Adolescent fashion followers who scrutinize styles and write blogs about their latest finds adulate him. “He’s a pop icon,” says Antoine Arnault, director of communications at LV. And what does Jacobs think of his celebrity? “Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano and Tom Ford all have an image,” he says. “I never used to manage mine, but now that I’ve taken things in hand, I feel better. When people buy brand-name clothing, they want something more than a label; they want to be able to put a name to the label and prefer the name to have a history.”
Jacobs has had a flair for the dramatic since he was a boy growing up in New York City. At an early age, he showed an interest in fashion, working as a stock boy at a small boutique. After graduating from the High School of Art and Design, he enrolled in Parsons The New School for Design. His first job at Perry Ellis was short-lived: Apparently, his fashion-forward “grunge” collection went against the Ellis aesthetic. He later teamed up with Robert Duffy and launched his own line in 1986.
Marc's personal ups and downs on the next page ...
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