“I never thought of such things: it’s the height of luxury,” assured Karl Lagerfeld in a television show in 2015. These “things like that” ? Retirement. And, in fact, the designer was unwavering, to the point of presenting his last fashion show for the house of Chanel in 2019, at the age of 85, just one month before being cut down by illness. Whether they work to the end like Lagerfeld or are pushed out by financiers eager for new blood, few designers retire voluntarily.
On March 19, it was with sincere astonishment that the community welcomed the announcement of the departure, at the age of 65, of the Belgian Dries Van Noten, leaving it to others to keep his legacy alive and his home. Already, last year, the farewells of the American Tom Ford, who retired to his villa in Palm Beach at the age of 62, were surprising. But there is a creator of their generation who seems not to want to think about “things like that” : Marc Jacobs, who will celebrate his 61st birthday on April 9. “I want to continue working and improving,” he assures, on a sunny March afternoon, from the very wealthy little town of Rye, facing the East River in New York State, in his house designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
His show on February 2, at the Park Avenue Armory, a neo-Gothic building in New York, proved to those who doubted that inspiration has not left the man who has worked in fashion for four decades. Forty-seven figures with spectacular bouffant wigs, blackened and glittery eyes, somewhere between Broadway heroine and sassy housewife, were presented. The wardrobe with its exaggerated shapes suggested that the models were little dolls.
This half-dream, half-reality impression was reinforced by the scenography. Next to the disproportionately sized tables and chairs of American artist Robert Therrien, the models looked tiny. “When everything was in place, we could clearly see that the excitement overwhelmed Marc: his eye began to curl, says Alastair McKimm, former editor-in-chief of the magazine iD and stylist who has advised him since 2021. For him, a collection remains a show, an entertainment. And the ultimate goal is to create a unique atmosphere for ten minutes that you will never forget. » Objective achieved: the fashion press applauded wildly.
One of the most recognized working creators
Artistic director of the women’s collections at Louis Vuitton from 1997 to 2013, where he invented ready-to-wear within the trunk maker, still at the head of the brand that bears his name and of which LVMH is the majority shareholder, the American Marc Jacobs is one of the most recognized working designers in the world. The one whose trajectory concentrates the major transformations of the fashion sector, such as the formation of large luxury groups at the turn of the millennium, the role of celebrities in communication or even the links with contemporary art… However, it is located less at the core of the reactor than in the past.
You have 82.34% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.