Marc Jacobs thinks of the past two decades in fashion in two ways: everything has changed and nothing has changed.
“Fashion hasn’t changed. It’s the same old thing,” the designer said in conversation with former WWD executive editor Bridget Foley on Tuesday at La Maison Orveda‘s debut fireside chat of its programming series called Cultural Tastemakers. “It’s a different dress, a different fabric, a different proportion. Fashion has always tried to decorate, dress and reimagine the body. And it continues to do that, just maybe in different ways than it did years ago.”
Jacobs, as he put it, thinks “it’s been more interesting to think about clothes in a sculptural way and without being pretentious or arrogant — we do it our way, which usually has a reference to something known.”
At its core, “If you squint, you just see shapes,” Jacobs said. “I see everybody in the winter in a down parka, bigger and greater proportions or skinnier legs.”
Differentiating between “clothes” and “fashion” — he sees the former as everyday garb, and the latter as a language between the wearer and the outside world. “I don’t know anything about clothes,” Jacobs said. “But when I wear fashion, I want a real shoulder commitment, I want a silhouette going, and I want to feel involved. Fashion is really special and it’s something you don’t need. It’s not a mere piece of cloth to cover your body. It’s something that pulls at your heart.”
Jacobs’ journey with fashion started when his age was a single digit, saying “I was nine years old, wanting to dress like a 21-year-old, and I had to make do with what was available.”
His career has spanned continents, most notably during his tenure at Louis Vuitton where he introduced collaborations like that with Stephen Sprouse or adding in key categories like ready-to-wear and fine jewelry. With the Sprouse collaboration, he recounted, when he hit internal resistance at Louis Vuitton, “I was at lunch with Mr. Arnault and I said, ‘What am I gonna do?’ and he said, ‘I didn’t hire you to win a popularity contest. That’s their problem.’ It was the first time in the history of Louis Vuitton there were waiting lists.”
Jacobs also alluded to plans to reintroduce makeup in lockstep with licensee Coty Inc., which also owns Orveda, and said that breaking into the fragrance business was when he first saw himself as a “legitimate designer.
“I wanted to tell stories, I was interested in meeting with merchandisers and saying, ‘This is the story I have for you,’” he said. “I see it as being called Daisy, because it’s a flower that has no fragrance and it’s a reference to my favorite character in literature, Daisy Buchanan.”
He’s taking a similar approach to makeup. “I loved working on makeup,” Jacobs said of his first go at the category with LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-owned Kendo. But it’s not the only category he’s personally interested in. “I use Augustinus Bader, in the blue bottle. I use Olaplex shampoo. I got this perm, so I’m using this curl mousse from Guido [Palau], which is available at Zara.
“That’s what fashion is,” Jacobs concluded. “I have so much more energy when I stumble into a new look. I feel excited about waking up in the morning because I can crunch my curls. I love getting dressed up, jewelry, shoes, all that stuff — hair and makeup and fragrance. It’s, like, all I do.”
So while so much is the same in fashion, there’s always a little something new to catch Jacob’s fancy.