The Marc Jacobs Style Guide
Marc Jacobs, the New York born fashion designer, is often the talk of the town, and is widely considered to be one of the most important and influential names in fashion; he is rightly a permanent fixture in style guides around the world. His looks are always a hit on the runway and always sell big; indeed, it seems, at times, as if he cannot miss. The fashion lines he currently maintains are Marc Jacobs, Marc by Marc, and Louis Vuitton.
When he was fifteen years old, Jacobs worked at Charivari, an innovative boutique in New York, where he first came into contact with Perry Ellis, who made a significant initial impression upon him. He attended the Parsons School of Art and Design in New York, which started him down the fashion road. While at Parsons, Marc Jacobs won both the Perry Ellis Golden Thimble Award, as well as the Chester Weinberg Gold Thimble Award and the Design Student of the Year Award. Only a few years later, Jacobs was awarded The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Perry Ellis Award for New Fashion Talent; he was the youngest designer ever to receive the award.
Jacobs' career began in earnest, but he was famously fired from Perry Ellis after designing a grunge collection in the early 90s, but he began his first line branded with his own name soon afterwards. Early on, Jacobs made a connection with Robert Duffy, who was then an executive with Reuben Thomas. This connection ultimately resulted in the birth of a partnership that would be known as Jacobs Duffy Designs, Inc.
Marc Jacobs is considered to be something of a bellwether in the fashion world, often anticipating and predicting future trends. He has undergone numerous, large-scale changes, often exploring individual themes or ideas in depth and then completely abandoning them the following season in favor of some new fancy. His style is constantly fresh and unique, sometimes going from one end of the style spectrum to another often from one season to the next. The cornerstone principles of the company are an unabashed love for fashion and design and a commitment to the overall quality of product.
Jacobs is the master of being effortlessly cool. Without trying, he is somehow able to capture the essence of what’s hip without trying too hard. Generally his clothing lines have a subtle anti-establishment or underdog feel to them. In addition to headlines generated by his fashion sense, there is constant buzz surrounding the wide array of celebrity friends and models present at his shows, from Victoria Beckham to Lil' Kim to Sofia Coppola.
In 1997, Marc Jacobs took over as Creative Director of Louis Vuitton, and has since reinvigorated the brand with his forward-thinking style sense. He handles numerous lines for Louis Vuitton including handbags, men's and women's ready to wear, shoes and small leather goods.
In the intervening years, Jacobs has received numerous awards including Women's Designer of the Year Award from VH1 in 1998 and Accessory Designer of the Year by the CFDA in 1999. Jacobs won Menswear Designer of the Year for the first time by the CFDA in 2002. In June 2003 Jacobs was awarded his 6th CFDA Award: Accessories Designer of the Year. This has resulted in numerous new store openings and collaborations worldwide including home accessory lines, a line of watches in a collaboration with Fossil, luxury Italian eyewear with Safilo S.P.A, as well as men’s and women’s fragrance lines.
Jacobs is also frequently recognized for his bold advertising campaigns, which tend to feature A-list celebrities . His ad campaigns have been consistently photographed twice a year by photographer Juergen Teller since 1998, when they did their first ad featuring Kim Gorden of Sonic Youth fame. Child star Dakota Fanning was featured in Jacobs’s 2007 ad campaign, while Victoria Beckham and M.I.A. modeled for his lines in 2008, with Sofia Coppola chosen as the model for his fragrance line. Due to his vast success and his rubbing elbows with numerous celebrities, Marc Jacobs has become a celebrity in his own right.
Quoted as saying "I love that reaction of love or hate. It's indifference that bores me to death." Jacobs is not afraid to go against the grain. His work is marked by extremely bright color patterns, the use of rugby stripes, oversize prints, layered looks, and empire lines. Jacobs is ubiquitous in the fashion world.
