Marc Jacobs to launch an affordably priced line

Marc Jacobs is returning to its former tactics. WWD reported this
morning that the brand is set to launch a new, “democratically priced”
line called The Marc Jacobs. The new line will launch with the brand’s
pre-fall 2019 collection, as an entirely distinctive part from the
Marc Jacobs runway collection.

The brand had shuttered its Marc by Marc Jacobs diffusion line in
2015, after fourteen years with an avid consumer following. The
decision to discontinue came around the same time as the company went
public, and was due to the company’s desire to retail at a consistent
middleground price point, rather than a contemporary range and a
luxury range.

“It wasn’t supposed to be a second line or the poor-relative-of,”
Marc Jacobs said to The Cut in 2015. “I’m sitting here in a 2,000 USD
cashmere/silk sweatshirt hoodie that we’ve made for 15 years and
Adidas track pants and a cotton shirt from American Apparel, and I
have a Prada fur coat upstairs.”

Coincidentally, the Marc Jacobs brand hasn’t had the easiest time
in the past few years. Its co-founder Robert Duffy stepped down from
his leading role, plus the brand has gone through multiple store
closures following a sales decline. Creative director of the Marc
Jacobs contemporary division John Targon left the company in April,
after less than three months in his position.

The brand has not revealed much information as to what can be
expected from the new The Marc Jacobs line, however it seems to be a
revival of what the brand lost when it discontinued Marc by Marc
Jacobs.