nytimes.com
Marc Jacobs: Mauve and Iris
By CATHY HORYN
In one of his periodic 1970s flashbacks, Marc Jacobs tonight seemed to point to Jodie Foster, the teenage prostitute Iris in “Taxi Driver,” and to images of women in mauve and flowers, perhaps especially those of the illustrator Antonio Lopez. Iris was an obvious allusion, because of the turn-back-brim hats, the curly hair, and the number of high-waist shorts and small knit tops in Mr. Jacobs’ spring 2011 collection. It was Ruth Morley who designed the costumes for “Taxi Driver.”
But you would have no trouble thinking of other 70s figures. “Lots of New York dolls,” Mr. Jacobs said backstage. He added, “After last season’s beige, I wanted to see more color.”
The colors were heady — mauve and pink mixed with goldenrod and tobacco, melon, peach, deep lilac (for a beautiful draped halter dress in charmeuse), cloudy pinks, gold (as glitter on platforms, as trim on evening looks). In the models’ hair were orchids. There were also corsages or a cluster of flowers on a choker. And, of course, the wide-brim straw hats in contrasting colors.
This wasn’t Mr. Jacobs’ most moving collection, but it had a finessing glamour and was a natural follow to last season’s elegant show and longer lengths. Staged in the round, with a gold centerpiece that looked like a cooling tower (someone joked that the structure was a repurposing of Karl Lagerfeld’s giant gold lion from his July Chanel show), the collection included tailored pants suits and shorts in what looked like washed duchess satin, a slim shirt dress in a dot-print silk satin, generously flounced peasant dresses and full skirts in cotton, below-the-knit knit dresses in a Missoni zig-zag pattern with long cardigans, and some lovely, floaty dresses in a wide-striped sheer cotton.
The music was Vivaldi’s “Summer,” from “The Four Seasons.”