At the end of Louis Vuitton’s Spring Summer 2007 show, Bernard Arnault turns to his boy wonder and whispers in plain English “You are not regretted.”
Now, Arnault is French. You might know the name. He is the CEO of the LVMH conglomerate and the 5th richest man in the world.
And even though English is not his first language, Arnault did not mince words. He turns to his associate and with a Cheshire grin states the obvious: You Have Made Me A Very Rich Man. And who responsible? For turning Louis Vuitton towards sky rocketing sales, placing the luxury handbag market on the global map and catalyzing the pop culture zeitgeist?
Mr. Marc Jacobs. Yes, Marky Marc.
I rewatch this unique documentary, Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton (2007) at least once a year. It is done by the sharp Loic Prigent, who follows Marc between his own fashion house and his time at the helm of Louis Vuitton.
What is unique about the documentary is its candidness, colors and fragmented film style.
Loic gets to really cozy up to Marc. This is fun because if you have ever watched interviews, listened or read about Marc you understand him to be a creative and charismatic character.
And he is. The Upper West Side young Perry Ellis obsessee was fashion struck from the jump. Marc’s humble origins were spent at Charivari, think Dover Street Market with more NY spin and Mom and Pop swag.
In recent speaking, genius
talked to Marc about his origins. For Highsnobiety, savvy Liana got to pick Marc’s mind about his storied lore. In her Instagram roundup, Liana included this wonderful news clipping:
I also love thinking about Marc’s origins. And I wonder if more people know about his rise to the top. It is easy to see the 2024 version of Marc Jacobs (Ice Spice Collabs, Heavn run by Ava Nirui, Neon totes) but do we remember where we came from?
Because besides its glitz, what interests me most from the documentary is its ability to weave Marc’s story through space and time. And the Marc Jacobs story is one that continues to be so fascinating to me.
Because as Arnault says below, maybe Marc is the Ralph Lauren of our time. But what if its apples to oranges?
What if Marc Jacobs is and always has been in a league of his own? Not necessarily surpassing Ralph Lauren but creating something of its own. What if through the Charivari come-up, the ascension at Perry Ellis, the Nirvana inspired 1993 Grunge Collection, the pop culture networking, the LVMH co-sign and the current Gen Z appeal Marc Jacobs’ vision has almost always existed singularly.
Well I think it has. And I want to tell you why I think this matters.
I believe that Marc Jacobs is not a heritage brand, but a brand mirroring our aesthetics of now. Marc is fascinated with art and pop culture in a historic way. And where his sensibilities differ from someone like Ralph is that Marc is very much drawing from the past to look ahead while Ralph is married to the past and the beauty of preserving the old.
Marc wants to take the old, bleach it for parts, string it on a necklace, and throw a dawdy little floral hat on the model as she walks down in circular futuristic heels. And the reason it has worked is because it is beautiful, lived in, and greatly researched.
I also think of Marc’s tight nit inner circle and his inspiration constantly gathered from friends in art, entertainment and music. For example, Sofia Coppola and Elizabeth Peyton.
Marc and Sofia are very close friends. In the documentary, Marc begins to dress model Tanya Dziahileva and remarks: I can see Sofia wearing it like that. And boom cut to: very pregnant Sofia sitting on her Parisian couch embodying the style of Marc’s slouchy, comfortable effortless woman.
And because clothes are signifiers, they embody the spirit of who wears them. So when Sofia Coppola, director, photographer, wears a Marc Jacobs cotton frilly skirt we are greatly influenced. And the consuming desire is I want that skirt too. And Marc Jacobs knows this.
The influence of artists. Marc Jacob’s friendship with painter drawer Elizabeth Peyton is also of great interest to me. Peyton’s early drawings of Marc are both intimate and lightly rendered. The marks behind Marc are gentle, soothing, light blues and browns. There is an air of whimsy and also a comfort. And because the subject is her good friend, there is an element of love behind this drawing. We can take it literally at face value: a drawing of a loved friend.
Elizabeth also drew Sofia Coppola. To the right is Marc smoking a sexy cigarette in front of this drawing, an instance that I pointed out on Twitter. Why it is interesting to me is because its all very connected. The inspiration Marc finds from Peyton’s work shows up in his clothes, the same clothes that Sofia wears down the street that we then purchase.
Marc’s interest in contemporary art can also not be understated. This man is a collecting savant. Don’t believe me? Just hear it from titan Larry Gagosian who interviewed in Loic’s film said the following:
And Marc doesn’t stop there. After Loic tongue in cheek notes Marc’s lack of car, rental status on apartments he does laud Jacobs’ “secretive” collection. Among it, works from the apple of Marc’s eye: artist Ed Ruscha. Marc has the below to say about Ruscha, the California cool by way of Nebraska native who Marc drools over and places higher than Madonna.
So Marc’s influence is a gesture of everyone he has every been influenced by. Which is why when we see his clothes of this era it is an extension of Peyton’s drawings, the whimsy of a Ruscha and the Parisian swag of a Coppola. And this, this rich funk fusion is what demonstrates the brilliance of Marc Jacobs to me.
And it is also what cements it as a world apart.
Perhaps the uniqueness of Marc Jacobs is his desire to connect these things so organically. We see this all throughout the documentary. Just how influential Marc’s designs are, how desperate Pharell Williams is for a bag that Marc mashed together and debuts on the Louis Vuitton runway.
None of these instances exist in a vacuum. Pharell is now the LVMH Men’s creative director. And by no stretch of the imagination was that a coincidence. I know good and well that he met Arnault in those rooms while Marc was still at the helm.
And this history, to me, is fascinating.
Because I think that Marc Jacobs still mirrors the aesthetic of now. Hyper-online, TikTok obsessed, trendy lingo, Y2k obsessed. The only difference?
Well, I don’t really like the aesthetics of now. Which is not an indictment on Marc Jacobs but rather our cultural image at large. One that is churned out in a rapid machine of content and overconsumption.
But I do have to wonder: whatever happened to bleaching necklaces in a baby bath for the fuck of it? Or scrunching up french butcher paper for the broach on a hat?
So while I don’t think Marc’s gestures are lost, I do believe they have faded tremendously.
I, like so many history buffs, want to see images of the past within the new.
I want to see the Sofia Coppola, Lil Kim, André Leon Talley runway.
I want to see the cigarette addicted Marc Jacobs pay homage to Ruscha in a bold spring collection.
I want to see his relationship with paintings played out in clothing and in draping, in framing and in style.
I want to see the endless inspiration of Marc’s past trickle into his future.
I want that so badly.
And I want to leave you with an image. A recent one.
It was 2 years ago, November 2022. The fall air began to settle and I finally broke out my black leather jacket. On a whim I ventured up to the Gagosian Gallery on Madison Avenue to see the debut of Anna Weyant’s sumptous paintings. If you know anything about Weyant’s story, you also know the controversy. So the air was thick.
The crowd was no different than a 2006 runway. Studded, stacked and random. From influencer to artist to designer the walls of Gagosian were nearly collapsing in. The atmosphere was intense and I felt absolutely unsettled.
And suddenly there he was, Boy Wonder himself. Marc Jacobs. Posing next to Weyant’s large painting of a bodice.
Which Marc bought that very evening.
And I could tell you that this exact moment had existed years before. When the Weyant painting was actually a Peyton drawing and when the Gagosian windows were the display of Charivari. Because always the auteur, Marc has been peeking into these windows forever.
Climbing onto the step to catch a glimpse inside.
Hoping, wishing, that one day it would be him.
This gave me chills. I wish there was more writing about fashion like this. Everything you write is just so great!
magnificent, love your writing <3