Marc Jacobs ends NYFW on high note

London – I first met Marc Jacobs in New York in 2003. We were introduced in a lift
in his office building downtown. I remember it vividly because he was
sporting a neck brace and awkwardly turned sideways to say hello. I was in
New York to attend his Spring 2004 show as part of the team that launched
his then younger label Marc by Marc Jacobs in Europe.

Back then, a Marc Jacobs show was the hottest ticket at New York Fashion
Week. The perfect mix of downtown cool and uptown glamour, his collections
epitomized American fashion. It didn’t hurt to have those striking runway
sets, celebrity front rows and decadent after-show parties. But still, if
you walked into his Bleecker Street store, you rarely left without a
purchase.

Marc Jacobs, the brand, had lost its way

But as quintessential as Marc Jacobs was to New York fashion, the brand
lost its footing, if not its ‘je ne sais quoi’ in recent years. When Jacobs
departed Louis Vuitton in 2013 he was faced with a namesake brand that had
largely been left to its own devices. The sales figures didn’t lie. Two
years later, in 2015, parent company LVMH announced the closure of the Marc
by Marc Jacobs brand, which a decade earlier had not only thrived, but had all the
potential to be a global powerhouse of a brand.

But no point dwelling on what could have been or should have been. Letting
bygones be bygones, Jacobs this week proved he is still a master of New
York Fashion Week. Not only to open his doors to make way for younger
talent – he supported Japanese designer Tomo Koizumi to put on a show in the
basement of his Madison Avenue boutique – but also proved he is equally
deserving of the NYFW spotlight.

Jacobs has always played with proportion, and in recent seasons proposed
hyper silhouettes which looked terrific on the catwalk, but would never end
up as a wardrobe staple. The grand shapes were back for AW19, but this time
there was equanimity between oversized and wearability, a balance of
fashion and extremes, playfulness without theatre.

Held in a pitch-black Park Avenue Armory, the show was intimate with a
single spotlight highlighting the first look on the catwalk, a leopard
print coat shouldered over a pussy-bow blouse worn under a wide striped
trouser suit. The outerwear stole the show in the first six looks, before
an emerald turtle neck shift dress changed the tone. An exaggerated A-line
silhouette dominated most propositions, but as they became more elegant and
eleborate toward the end, the final look a feather black swan worn by
Christy Turlington, they brought to mind the Marc Jacobs of yore, a master
of New York Fashion Week.

Photo credit: Marc Jacobs Fall 19 Finale, source Marc Jacobs; Christy
Turlington, Catwalkpictures