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Fashion

ON THE MARC

The inimitable designer returns this season with an homage collection, celebrating the label’s best-loved pieces and marking his 30th fabulous year in fashion. We interviewed the designer to find out what’s happening in Marc’s world now.

2019 has been a landmark (pardon the pun) year for Marc Jacobs. His friend and former creative director at large at Vogue, Grace Coddington, published a coffee-table book featuring her drawings of the designer’s 30 years in fashion, he married his love Char Defrancesco in April (his adorable flash mob proposal is well worth a watch on Instagram), and he’s about to launch a brand-new division of his brand under the name, THE Marc Jacobs. Three decades into his career, he’s as relevant, bold and innovative as ever, and thanks to his social media mastery, is appealing to a whole new generation of customer.

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Marc Jacobs and his husband Char Defrancesco at the Met Gala in New York.

I wanted it to have some of the initial energy of what it felt when I worked on Marc by Marc many years ago. That was a line that was made up of everything we loved and expressed an authentic way with integrity for what each piece was.

Marc Jacobs

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Grunge isn’t dead. THE Marc Jacobs stripe knit returns for autumn winter 2019.

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The Smiley redux jumper, by The Marc Jacobs.

THE BEGINNING

He’s nowhere near slowing down, so the element of reflection in this new collection is a little surprising. Nostalgia, perhaps? Far from it, Marc explains, “When my team and I met initially to start this project, we looked at the pieces we have consistently gone back to. We started to put these items up on a board with the title, The; The thermal, The cashmere hoodie … We liked the idea of single items and it became THE Marc Jacobs. THE Marc Jacobs isn’t about nostalgia at all, it’s more about things we remember from past collections and saying, okay let’s not remake that but let’s make something like it.” The result is an all-star line-up of his most loved designs over the years, all of which shine in his new campaign, which, in true Marc form, is a visual treat, full of colour and storytelling.

I often use the expression of looing back and forward but being present.

Marc Jacobs

THE POWER OF TWO

"We shot with Hugo Scott, who has worked with us for a long time in different capacities. Lotta Volkova styled and we loved this idea of shooting different sets of twins. It was great to be on set and meet them all, from all different places and walks of life." These stylish ingénues surely speak to the Marc Jacobs girl of 2019 – who is she exactly? “This line isn’t defined by one person, Marc explains, "There’s a mix of things that are a bit orthopaedic and functional and things that are vintage and retro and then there are always things that are new. The approach was more magpie and eclectic that spoke to the girls that I have always loved and how they put themselves together."

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Lotta Volkova styled THE Marc Jacobs shoot, and the designer said: “We loved this idea of shooting different sets of twins.

THE BIG COME-BACK

Whether you’ve been wearing Marc since he began, or you’re hearing his name this season for the first time, the designer wants everyone to know that this new collection of ready to wear and accessories is for every woman. "With THE Marc Jacobs, we love everything, as long as it has the integrity of what it is. There is a freedom to ‘put that with that’; it’s more about personal styling than about having a runway look." That's the thing about Marc Jacobs. While he may be THE big-name designer, he's just doing his thing and enjoying the ride. "A lot of things inspire me; music, art, pop culture, but the thing that inspires me the most, the thing I know the most about is fashion and style."

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The Marc Jacobs bags

SHOP THE MARC JACOBS

SHOP MARC JACOBS BAGS

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