Marc Jacobs S/S 08 NYC

[Bidwell]

NY TIMES
A Designer Gives Lessons on What’s Sexy
By CATHY HORYN
Published: September 12, 2007

Delayed by two hours but destined to be debated for months, Mr. Jacobs’s spring show expressed perfectly the dislocating values of our culture. From the obsession with celebrities like Ms. Beckham, a Spice Girl and the wife of the soccer star David Beckham, to the bizarre trash-bin styles of designers, Mr. Jacobs, the most watched American designer, found the right contemporary notes and sounded them clearly.

At the same time, he offered an antidote to the cartoonish Jessica Rabbit sexuality that has dominated women’s fashion for more than 20 years, since the campy era of Thierry Mugler and Jean Paul Gaultier. And which to a banal degree has become the banal norm on red carpets.

Although a number of designers have used lingerie and minimal draping to impart a softer sex appeal, none have the authority of Mr. Jacobs’s stripped-down dresses to break the hold of flagrant sexiness. His skimmy, bugle-beaded evening dresses and tweed skirts, with undergarments casually showing through sheer panels at the side or back, are erotic. Yet, because of the sensibility of the designer, they are respectful of women in a way that Britney Spears’s fishnets are not.

Despite the wait, there was the sense backstage after the show that people thought they had witnessed something special from a designer who in recent years has pushed himself harder and harder. This is the fourth season that Mr. Jacobs has asked Stefan Beckman to design the theatrical set. For Monday’s show, the multilevel set included a film by the video artist Charles Atlas. The music throughout was Ravel’s “Boléro.”

After greeting Mr. Jacobs, Grace Coddington, the creative director of Vogue, said of the collection: “There were so many layers, and I don’t mean clothes — thought. It was really amazing and daring, and when you see something like that, you don’t care about the wait.”

The artist John Currin, who deals with eroticism (and, by association, dressing) in his paintings, and who is a friend of the designer’s, said: “So often when sex is done in fashion, it’s what is hard, interchangeable and jaded. This seemed very romantic.”

Another guest, Panos Yiapanis, an influential European stylist who has worked with a variety of designers, said, “The show defined for me what is modern.” He added: “It’s ironic that Victoria Beckham was here, with her breasts out. This show wipes all that kind of expression away.”

Over the last few seasons, Mr. Jacobs has touched on such themes as futurism and retrospective fashion, taking what he needs from the work of other designers, like Yohji Yamamoto, to express his ideas. This time, he said, “I just decided to get involved in where we are now: the obsession with reality TV shows, the red carpet, footballers’ wives like Victoria Beckham.” He added: “There’s this two-dimensional, three-quarter-portrait quality to all the pictures you see in every magazine. They’re of nobodies, somebodies and half-somebodies.” That was a starting point.

“And people always say to me, ‘Oh, you’re not known for doing sexy.’ So I wanted to think about that.”

The show was done in reverse of the typical order. It started with Mr. Jacobs’s bow and the finale of models and then progressed backward from the evening clothes. Not only did this approach help convey the exceptional emphasis placed on evening clothes, especially in magazines and on Web party pages, but it also allowed Mr. Jacobs to immediately challenge the conventional view.

In a way, all fashion is a case of the emperor’s new clothes, and Mr. Jacobs has been a designer long enough to enjoy the game of occasionally hoodwinking his audience with see-through evening trousers or a loose one-shoulder white gown with smudgy print and a sheer panel in the back, with a beige bra and panties underneath.

Nonetheless, there was something beautiful, as well as realistic, about a black beaded T-shirt with a stole draped over the bust that was paired with black silk shorts. Or a beaded transparent tank dress shown over a lavender bra and underpants. Although such looks may ultimately be worn by a select few, Mr. Jacobs is influential, and women will take cues from his ideas. There is more beauty and modesty in the way Mr. Jacobs exposes a bra strap than you see most days on the subway.

Many people who follow fashion have been waiting for a designer to deal openly and imaginatively with sexuality without exploiting it, to find shapes more in concert with women’s lives than another humdrum bustier. With his cutaway dresses, seductive capes and sly color-block tops, including a varsity jersey, Mr. Jacobs convinces us that it is possible.

I read Courtney Love was present at the after party. Now it's starting to make sense..

 

[JeanAvril]

I kind of like this. Even if he completely ripped off Viktor & Rolf with the backwards runway stuuf, and Viktor & Rolf's collection was a lot better than this one, in my opinion. The accessories are beautiful, as always.

Quick question: What is the song playing in this show? It sounds like it's some screwed up version of "Bolerish" by Ryuichi Sakamoto.

 

[ilaughead]

^Ravel’s “Boléro”

 

[chloehandbags]

In a way, all fashion is a case of the emperor’s new clothes

I don't agree.

As I've said before on another thread, I think true fashion (i.e. not the seasonal trend dictation switchback) is a very real, almost organic, group consciousness process that affects us all (whether we like it, or not) and continually cycles, almost without the need for intervention (save to predict and realise it, of course) and is rarely halted, except in the case of major events, like world wars.

This is demonstrated by the fact that, at any one point in time, even to people who don't, consciously, follow fashion, a certain cut of garment, or colour, will, instinctively, look 'right' and another will look totally 'wrong'.

What is emperor's new clothes is the way that, instead of respecting and drawing from this natural flow and producing clothes that people can actually wear (and want to wear), certain 'fashion' designers take it upon themselves to try to hold it back, like King Canute (to mix my metaphors! ), or to push it forward too quickly and/or to jump around from era to era and theme to theme, vandalising references (and clothing!) like hyperactive nine year olds vandalise their toys; presumably, in a vain (and I mean vain in more ways than one) attempt to assert their dominance over it and therefore, also us.

This insane jumping around may be just about bearable if the designer is an infallible genius, who never puts a foot wrong, but as soon as he does, he runs the risk of the emptiness, futility and irrelevance of it all becoming all too apparent.

 

[disco54]

in a way its hypocristy , ms horyn is a hypocrite at times , on one hand if some other designer had jumped ideas , she will say oh he is incoherent. This collection was interesting but ms. horyn is making it seem like its some biblical event man. Next season he will be back to making wearable clothes probably . Ok I get the whole , he is trying to redefine "sexuality" according to her by saying girls like Victoria Beckham are banal and boring . In reality though , you cant create this surreal sexuality , VB is sexy , thats why people are obsessed with her . One fashion show wont change an ideology that has existed for as long as i can remember lol. I think Ms.horyn is a bit jealous lol............Also when i first saw this collection i just thought that this is one schizophrenic 40s/50s secretary. thats it . nothing sexual as such.

 

[caliboy672180]

in a way its hypocristy , ms horyn is a hypocrite at times , on one hand if some other designer had jumped ideas , she will say oh he is incoherent. This collection was interesting but ms. horyn is making it seem like its some biblical event man. Next season he will be back to making wearable clothes probably . Ok I get the whole , he is trying to redefine "sexuality" according to her by saying girls like Victoria Beckham are banal and boring . In reality though , you cant create this surreal sexuality , VB is sexy , thats why people are obsessed with her . One fashion show wont change an ideology that has existed for as long as i can remember lol. I think Ms.horyn is a bit jealous lol............Also when i first saw this collection i just thought that this is one schizophrenic 40s/50s secretary. thats it . nothing sexual as such.

lol i totally agree. 100% and as much as i love ms horn she can be very contradictory.

But my thing is prada does this type of "sexiness" all the time. its not so new the whole showing the undies threw sheer panels and stuff. AND MIU MIU JUST DID IT. now that i have had time to digest it. he really just copied a lot.

 

[fashionista-ta]

I don't agree.

As I've said before on another thread, I think true fashion (i.e. not the seasonal trend dictation switchback) is a very real, almost organic, group consciousness process that affects us all (whether we like it, or not) and continually cycles, almost without the need for intervention (save to predict and realise it, of course) and is rarely halted, except in the case of major events, like world wars.

This is demonstrated by the fact that, at any one point in time, even to people who don't, consciously, follow fashion, a certain cut of garment, or colour, will, instinctively, look 'right' and another will look totally 'wrong'.

What is emperor's new clothes is the way that, instead of respecting and drawing from this natural flow and producing clothes that people can actually wear (and want to wear), certain 'fashion' designers take it upon themselves to try to hold it back, like King Canute (to mix my metaphors! ), or to push it forward too quickly and/or to jump around from era to era and theme to theme, vandalising references (and clothing!) like hyperactive nine year olds vandalise their toys; presumably, in a vain (and I mean vain in more ways than one) attempt to assert their dominance over it and therefore, also us.

This insane jumping around may be just about bearable if the designer is an infallible genius, who never puts a foot wrong, but as soon as he does, he runs the risk of the emptiness, futility and irrelevance of it all becoming all too apparent.

Even world wars can't stop fashion, though rationing and other restrictions are bound to shape it B)

Possibly that risk is not a concern ...

I have to say I'm with Suzy this time. I have no problem with the way Marc plays around, as long as you can do something with the pieces when you take them apart. I just don't see that this time ...

Has anyone been to the showroom for this?

 

[Bidwell]

Whatever the case, it's got all of you thinking for better of worse and that RARELY happens in this corporately controlled world of fashion.

I believe Jacobs has put his seal of approval on certain wayward concepts thrown about by innovators like Kawakubo and Margiela. He puts them into an American concept and thus will have influence, even if it means buying something a little bit more C-raaazy at your local Walmart-Target...whatever.

 

[misssakura]

I've said it before but I didn't see sex in this collection..I just felt completely uneasy. (although it's good that a collection can provoke an emotional reaction..like last season's heatherette made me puke up in my mouth a little)

 

[aldn]

I'm feeling like children or childrens playtime could have been an inspiration. The set reminds me of like the kids section in Ikea - the blocks and the use of random numbers - also the cute animals as necklaces, the paper-plane in the hair, the eye-mask - all of it is really reminiscent of like a child's world, no?

i saw that with his marc by marc line for fall 2007. it looked as though they were playing dress up or trying to get into a party that noone thought they should be at.

 

[justlooking]

I really don't like this very much. It looks thrown together at the last minute, messy and arts and crafty. I can't help but like the grey two piece but at the same time i don't like midriff so i'm contradicting myself.

 

[AmericanBaby]

The entire time I was watching the collection, I thought I was watching a high school students work...it was trying very hard to be something spectacular, but it failed miserably...but in his defense, I think Marc actually TRIED this season, i felt like last fall he couldnt have cared less what he sent down the runway...I guess it's better to try and fail then to not try at all...

 

[rangerrick14]

The absurdity of the collection was brilliant. Yes he borrowed from others but, he has the authority to make a statement in a way that Margiela or Garcons could never do. While they might have one picture in Elle he'll have 50 in other magazines and therefore reach more women and change the way we look at sexy dressing for awhile.

 

[La bordélique]

wwd.com

Thursday, September 13, 2007
Jacobs Blasts Back: Designer Tells Critics Shut Up or Stay Home

Published: Thursday, September 13, 2007
By Bridget Foley with contributions by Marc Karimzadeh
NEW YORK — Angry? Times two. After reading industry comments about their show's late start in WWD on Wednesday and fielding questions about the widely circulated rumor that on Monday night, while his guests sat tapping their heels waiting for his show to begin, Marc Jacobs was in the Mercer Hotel restaurant or bar (depending upon the version), he and Robert Duffy placed separate calls to this paper to respond. Jacobs was primarily concerned with the lateness contretemps, while Duffy, president of Marc Jacobs International, wanted to address the still-widening Mercer rumor.
"Robert and I discussed this today and we were like, you know what, we don’t want to show here anymore."
— Marc Jacobs
"I know that Marc didn't leave the showroom until 8 [on Monday night]," Duffy said. "He called me up and said, 'I have to go back home [the Mercer Hotel] and take a shower.' He was [at the Armory] at 8:30 for the rehearsal. So when all these people started calling me and telling me he was at the bar at the Mercer at 9:30 or 10, that's ridiculous. I was with him."

Jacobs offered a similar account, if more colorfully stated. "That is bullsh*t! That is bullsh*t!" he retorted. "I was at the f---ing office until the last fitting was over. I came back to the hotel — I hadn't been here in three days! I hadn't showered in three days! I slept on the couch in my office for 20 minutes three nights in a row — anyone at my office will tell you that. I got 20 minutes sleep Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night. The first shower I had was Monday at 8 before the rehearsal of our show. I did not have lunch, I did not have drinks, I did not have tea at the Mercer, I walked through the lobby; I live in this hotel. I hadn't been there — ask the reception at the hotel. When they saw me on Monday, they were like, 'We haven't seen you in days.' I lived in my office for three days in a row....My boyfriend was downstairs having dinner. I wasn't. I was at the rehearsal, I was at the office until the last minute. I took 20 minutes to shower and shave — I stank like a raccoon! I could not go to the show like that."

The notoriously late starts of Jacobs' shows have become something of an industry legend, and the source of considerable frustration and anger among many audience members. But though apologetic, Jacobs and Duffy are not in a groveling mood. They noted the difficulties in staging three New York shows in short order — Marc Jacobs, Marc by Marc Jacobs and men's Marc by Marc Jacobs — especially while continuing to up their production aspects, as with the Charles Atlas film that was shot on Sunday night and screened at the collection show on Monday. They noted, too, that scheduling this season around Rosh Hashanah brought particular challenges beyond their power to control. Meanwhile, Jacobs, typically neither a complainer nor a braggart, expressed what everyone here knows — that he brings something special to New York Fashion Week.

"I'm responding to what was written in Women's Wear," he said, "all those people saying, 'We have families,' 'We have families,' 'We have families.' Talk to my sample room. Talk to the 60 women who didn't see their families for six weeks.
"Marc and I were up from Friday until Monday. Marc wasn’t drinking, he wasn’t doing drugs, he wasn’t at the Mercer Hotel having a cocktail while everybody was at the show waiting. He was with me backstage."
— Robert Duffy
"I'm very sorry that I inconvenienced anyone by having a show two hours late," he continued. "I really, really am, and so is Robert. We're all very upset that people got their noses bent out of joint. But I think this is so unfair. We do a huge production show, we try to give fashion and do a major fashion show in New York. I have no say in the show schedule, the show schedule has been moved up a week, and another week, and as far as I'm concerned we showed two weeks early not two hours late.

"Another thing, everybody talks about these families they have to go home to. I mean, every person who works in every factory in Italy, and every person who works in our sample room, they didn't see their families for six weeks so that we could do this show two weeks early. So I'm really appalled that people have absolutely no perception of what it takes to do things. And when we complain about the show schedule our voice is not heard, nobody does anything about it, the CFDA does me absolutely no service whatsoever as an American fashion designer."

Jacobs said he is seriously considering taking his Marc Jacobs show to London or Paris. "I don't really feel a part of the American fashion community," he said. "I really feel like an outsider, I think we all do, and we feel unloved here, so we want to go somewhere else."

Duffy struck a more conciliatory tone. He said that when Jacobs called him on Wednesday to suggest a shift to Paris, he was open to the thought, "because people here just don't appreciate us." The transition would be an easy one because of the Louis Vuitton connection, where Jacobs is that company's creative director. "But then you take Marc Jacobs, which is an American company, and show it in Paris to make it easier? That's the wrong thing to do because you feel that you're not supporting the American fashion industry....We are so proud to be in American fashion. We are proud to do the quality of work we do. We're proud of the presentations we do, and there are certain people who appreciate it and we love that.
"You have a family? OK, well that’s nice, I don’t, and I work. So leave me alone and don’t come to the show next time.­­"
— Marc Jacobs
"We really do want to be a part of this community," Duffy continued. "We really don't want to inconvenience anybody. We're sorry. It wasn't intentional, it wasn't a 'f--k you' or anything other than we were trying to do the best work for these people."

Jacobs has long had a rocky relationship with the CFDA and the spring dates are among the issues that have rekindled the antagonism. He charged that a key champion behind the shift was Suzy Menkes, who wanted to get back to Europe in time for the Jewish holiday, and that the CFDA caved to her pressure. (Diane von Furstenberg has said that serious pressure was exerted from various sources, including retailers.) When asked about Jacobs' delay, Menkes told WWD, "I would like to murder him with my bare hands and never see another Marc Jacobs show in my entire life," and in Wednesday's International Herald Tribune she delivered a scathing review in which she referred to the collection as "a freak's costume party." She also accused Jacobs of pilfering not only from Rei Kawakubo and Martin Margiela, whom he has oft sighted as inspirations, but his LVMH compatriot John Galliano as well.

Jacobs, in turn, accused Menkes of transferring her wrath over the late start to her review. "I've never denied how influenced I am by Margiela, by Rei Kawakubo, those are people that inspire my work; I don't hide that. For her to turn this into this hate fest for me and my collection I think is ridiculous....I expect people, whether we're two hours late or two hours early or we don't show at all, to look at what they see: the clothes. Of course there are comparisons to other things. I'm a designer living in this world who loves fashion...I'm attentive to what's going on in fashion, I'm influenced by fashion, that's the way it is. I have never ever hidden it. I have never insisted on my own creativity, as Chanel would say. I have my interpretation of ideas I find very strong. Jil Sander is influenced by Comme des Garçons, Miuccia Prada is influenced by Comme des Garçons, everyone is influenced by Comme des Garçons, Martin Margiela. Anybody who's aware of what life is in a contemporary world is influenced by those designers. She [Menkes] wants to observe a Jewish holiday, but I start a show two hours late [and] she gets her nose bent out of shape."

"We respect the Jewish holidays," Duffy said, while explaining that the rest of the supply chain wasn't necessarily on board. "The factories in Italy didn't agree to open earlier."

And while the Italians were at the beach, Jacobs was in the studio. "I work my *** off," he said. "I don't take vacations, I don't have homes all over the world, I don't ride horses: I f---ing work for a living. Again, like this idea, you have a family? OK, well that's nice, I don't, and I work. So leave me alone and don't come to the show next time."

Or at least keep your outrage to yourself. Jacobs and Duffy say they couldn't be happier with the state of their business, particularly its recent creative roll that had its most recent expression in that remarkable show on Monday night. "I'm actually as happy as I could possibly be," Jacobs said. "I think I did a great job. I love what I did."

 

[melt977]

Way to go Marc!


I didn't realise that he is doing charity work by showing his clothes to his clients... and that he's the only person on the planet with a tight deadline....

How dare people complain? I'm sure Paris can appreciate a good delay and will definetely show some excitement....

I guess this is the best excuse he could come up with for such a crap show....

 

[chloehandbags]

Jacobs, in turn, accused Menkes of transferring her wrath over the late start to her review. "I've never denied how influenced I am by Margiela, by Rei Kawakubo, those are people that inspire my work; I don't hide that. For her to turn this into this hate fest for me and my collection I think is ridiculous....I expect people, whether we're two hours late or two hours early or we don't show at all, to look at what they see: the clothes.

Nice try Marc, but however irritated she was by the late start, I very much doubt that Suzy Menkes would jeopardise her reputation as the most respected and unbiased journalist in fashion, just to complain about tardiness!

As a person afflicted with the perpetual lateness gene, myself, I actually have a lot of sympathy for Marc, in that respect, especially as everything appears to have conspired against him (dates, suppliers etc.). But to suggest that everyone who didn't appreciate the clothes was merely transferring their irritation, is a complete red herring, IMO.

Couldn't it be possible, Marc, that you just didn't do your best work, this time? Maybe that was, at least partly, due to the fact that you say that you followed others' suggestions about exploring a 'sexuality' theme (rather than following your own instincts) and/or simply didn't have enough time?

 

[liberty33r1b]

everyone's complaining about the collection now, but give them another 6 months (in time for summer to start) and they will love it. it's like a Prada collection to me: i never get it when i first see it and hate it, but then when the season's here i love and totally understand what she meant. Marc's the same. you have to understand his collections to love it!

 

[chloehandbags]

^ So you're saying Suzy Menkes doesn't understand this collection?!

 

[Bidwell]

Do we have a "Burn in hell, Marc!" thread? Or better yet, it deserves its own site.

I'm appalled by the sheer vitriol being thrown at him. It didn't work out, 2 hrs were lost in the precious press' lives and now this? Don't tell me Ms. Menkes didn't go out of her way to not only write something horrible but to headline it.

At least he has GUTS.

When his critics are still figuring out what it all meant 6 months from now, he'll have moved on. Such is the world of fashion where most constantly yearn for things the way they were last season.

Of note, When CDG paid hommage to Westwood in the most flagrant way, did it provoke such slaughter?

People outside fashion really don't realize the rather unglamorous hard work and problems involved in getting everything delivered on time for a presentation.
This probably explains why NY is so bland and safe because there is not enough time to get anything other than a bolt of black or neutral delivered on time. I bet most collections are really pre-collections for the market and not really done for a presentation per se.

His work is particularly American, his second line is rock solid and saleable and NY will obviously be the worse for not having him. Sad.

 

[telepathicgoat]

WOW
I was shocked when I was reading Suzy Menkes' article, I have never read anything like that from her before. She was pissed-off

And about the dates: Its ridiculous to move the fashionweek earlier, especially because the Italians have their holidays, and no one can stop them. lol :/
sh*tty tho

I feel sorry for Marc Jacobs, but not so much. And this whole sexuality-concept bs is just bs. Since when is he a conceptual designer? lol

It just doesnt cut it for me. Though I was excited at start, I now feel dissapointed and also a bit angry.

And then he gives the whole influential-thing-speech which we all heard ins chool millions of times. Its just the untalented students that give those speeches....

And those trompe l'oeil dresses are hideous!!!!!!!!!!!! aweful!