It looked a bit like the most watched designer of this century was unraveling last year.
Marc Jacobs, who has collected a half-dozen awards from the Council of Fashion Designers of America, swung from rehab in the spring (following seven years of sobriety) to purgatory in the fall — the fashion press crucified him after his September fashion show started two hours late. (“I want to murder him with my bare hands and never see another Marc Jacobs show as long as I live,” the International Herald Tribune’s Suzy Menkes told Women’s Wear Daily afterward.)
Then the vitriol got really personal, with tabloids speculating that the newly svelte Jacobs was the result of surgical assistance.
From that turmoil, Jacobs has emerged hotter than ever. His cult-favorite vision is becoming a mainstream megabrand via his Marc Jacobs collection and his secondary Marc by Marc Jacobs line. For spring, yet another of his handbag collaborations for Louis Vuitton, for which he also serves as creative director, is defying the status-bag death knell. (This time the logo bags have been reworked by artist Richard Prince.)
Finally last month, after a year in the making, Marc Jacobs International opened its 4,000-square-foot Marc by Marc Jacobs store in Bucktown. It’s devoted to Jacobs’ lower-priced line of men’s, women’s and children’s clothing and accessories, with a quirky, hipster edge. Selling rhinestone rings for as little as $2, the expanding chain of 20-plus stores has earned the nickname “K-Marc” from the trend forecasting company Stylesight.
Next year promises another Chicago boutique, for Jacobs’ signature collection of $2,000 dresses and $1,500 handbags. Robert Duffy, Jacobs’ longtime business partner and lifesaver — it is he who dispatched Jacobs to Arizona to get clean — said he knows exactly where he wants it but won’t tell. Currently there are 23 Marc Jacobs Collection boutiques with five more planned for this year.
Meanwhile, Jacobs habitually provokes controversy, even when punctual.
The 44-year-old New York native, who made a name for himself by reinventing grunge and granny looks, produced a surprisingly skin-baring Marc Jacobs collection for spring in a spectacular backward show, starting with his bow.
More unexpected: Victoria Beckham stars in the weirdly funny ad campaign for it. This from a brand previously represented by Sofia Coppola and artist Rachel Feinstein, one that gained authenticity from its association with outsiders and the unglossed, said Men’s Vogue’s Stephen Watson, who worked for Jacobs right out of college. Actor Heath Ledger attended Jacobs’ shows. Actress Hilary Swank wears Jacobs.
“Some people think I’ve lost my mind,” said Jacobs, arriving tanned and toned but tired from Paris for a benefit party to celebrate the Chicago store.
“There’s been a lot of [gossip] about my life,” he said, after greeting a string of fans and staffers, one of whom flashed a Funyuns snack bag like an accessory. “In the past, I didn’t talk back. But there were so many things after the September show, I started to just be very honest. People don’t really know me.”
On the Chicago dinner menu for the 400 guests in the anonymous loft space on Milwaukee Avenue: lamb or salmon, sparkling wine and a trio of tarts.
On Jacobs’ plate: a mound of unrecognizable vegetables.
“Ulcerative colitis,” Jacobs explained. “I changed my diet drastically. I started exercising. It’s a major transformation, really.”
Gone are Jacobs’ doughy jaw line, stringy locks and schlumpy shirts of a few seasons ago. Now his neck is ringed in Boucheron diamonds and his dark Caesar-cut hair gleams cobalt blue.
Jacobs still indulges some vices, including Diet Coke and Marlboro Lights, tucked in his Prada goat-skin “evening bag,” as he calls it. “It’s a shaving kit bag,” he admitted, “but it holds my cigarettes and camera.” His luggage, he hastens to mention, is Vuitton. His gym bag is Marc Jacobs.
The pressure to meet and exceed expectations is greater than ever, said Jacobs. Yoga and the treadmill — “I sweat every day” — help him deal.
“I feel so good. I feel very good about work and very good about life,” he said. “I don’t ever want to rest on past success or formula. If I wanted to have an easy life, I’d make tablecloths. Or napkins,” he said, eyeing one on the table. “They never change.”
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The makeover
The body: “All my doctors and therapists said, you have to find something every day to do for yourself. I said, ‘I have too much work.’ They said, if you don’t [do something], you won’t be able to work.” So he starts his days with two-hour workouts, a far cry from when Jacobs (at left in 2004) would jump in a cab to travel three blocks. Says his business partner Robert Duffy: “When he does anything, he does it to the extreme.”
The bling: “I discovered I liked jewelry last April,” Jacobs said, including Harry Winston diamond earrings and a Boucheron diamond necklace. It’s tied to “dieting and taking care of myself, now that I care about how I look. I hated trying clothes on in a store before. Now it’s fun, like when I was young. I forgot how much fun it was to indulge oneself.”
The hair: A makeup artist in London suggested he dye it blue for a party for Takashi Murakami, the artist he collaborated with on the much-imitated multicolor Louis Vuitton handbags of 2003. He liked it. But he has to touch it up every week. “It’s horrible, the upkeep.”
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No mean shopgirls
Designer Marc Jacobs and Robert Duffy, president of Marc Jacobs International, reject the haughtinesss of other designer stores. “We are never intimidating,” Duffy said. Nor do they play bait-and-switch from runway to reality. “Everything that’s on the [Marc by Marc Jacobs] runway is in the store,” Duffy said. That goes beyond men’s, women’s and children’s clothing to shoes, books, cheap jewelry and pricey handbags (the one above, at the Marc by Marc Jacobs store, is $498). Though the Marc by Marc brand is carried in department stores and boutiques, up to 80 percent of the merchandise is exclusive to Jacobs’ standalone stores. The Chicago one is at 1714 N. Damen Ave. (773-276-2998).
Spring, exposed
From a brand that shuns overt sexuality, why the peekaboo sheer panels and flashes of undergarments in the spring Marc Jacobs collection? Jacobs explained, in his elusive way: “It’s really, it all started because when people talk about sexy clothes, I don’t think about clothes being sexy. I think about people being sexy. Fashion is so much theater. When we do the shows, people say wow, but in the end it’s not about that. I don’t care about clothes until they’re part of people’s lives, until people wear them. When they’re part of a life they mean something. A show is a theatrical project. It’s usually at the end of the show that I figure out [what it means]. It’s in reflection. It’s not a finite decision that you execute.”
Posh as muse
Victoria Beckham had to have a sense of humor about the ads shot by Juergen Teller for Marc Jacobs’ spring collection. One shows only her legs — feet shod in Jacobs’ kooky sideways heels — dangling over a Marc Jacobs shopping bag, as if she is a product stuffed inside. Some were surprised by the choice of Beckham. Says Jacobs: “I don’t buy into the whole thing of who’s your image. If it’s Sofia [Coppola] or Victoria, it’s just women who are confident. I’m fascinated by pop culture’s opinion of these women. Something’s wrong when people put so much attention on other people’s lives. I think all of this is telling.” Men’s Vogue fashion director Stephen Watson, who once worked for Jacobs, said the designer likes to challenge perceptions.
Cheap thrills
Jacobs is best known for his accessories, especially expensive handbags, under his own brand and in his work for Louis Vuitton. But he offers pieces at every price point. One of the recent additions to the range is the Marc Jacobs Daisy perfume, whose name is shared by one of Jacobs’ bull terriers. “But the perfume is not named after her,” Jacobs said, smiling. “A daisy has no fragrance but it evokes a certain kind of girl–it’s a friendly flower, not precious, not exotic. It doesn’t have a sexual consideration. And one of my favorite characters in literature is Daisy Buchanan in ‘The Great Gatsby.'” The new mod Daisy Marc Jacobs Solid Perfume ring twists open to reveal the fragrance (above), $30 at Nordstrom.
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wdonahue@tribune.com
Coming next month: Style reports on last week’s fashion shows in New York.
