It must get rather boring reading about fashion in New York but, I’m sorry, here it is again: Marc Jacobs rules this town. While other, younger designers spent today involved in a conversation Jacobs began eight months ago (full pants, wide shoulders, neutral palettes), Jacobs blasted forward with a collection that was unerringly focused, dynamic, and jam-packed with great ideas.
The accompaniment to the show was all Gershwin bombast, and there was much of the American in Paris about the slim, consistently waisted silhouettes — but that was just where it all began. No one can mix like Marc Jacobs can mix: That American in Paris found her way to Montparnasse via the Masai, with shined up kente cloth, thick armfuls of bangles, and cleanly tied head scarves. And then came signature Seattle plaids, demonstrating how the substitution of one small element of a look (a Lurex-trimmed flannel singlet, for example) can switch the mood of a thing entirely. Fashion is, in Jacobs’s world, indeed about nuance, even as it is bright, happy-making, and completely optimistic.
Moreover, he’s cut way down on the drama: For the second season in a row, the show started quite nearly on time: No more three-hour wait times spent gawking at odd collections of the famous and greasy-haired. These days, Jacobs means business.
After all those rich, rich fabrics, the density of influence, the careful layering of ideas, Jacobs closed the show with three long, simple jersey dresses. It would not surprise us if those three dresses served as the opening to whatever it is we’ll be discussing next.
