Why is Marc Jacobs a Fashion Designer Like No Other?

Why is Marc Jacobs a Fashion Designer Like No Other?

Despite his image iconoclastic star of fashion, the American Marc Jacobs, a handsome 50-year-old brunette, knew how to lead a career at Vuitton and under his own brand, enough to allow him today to hope to go public. .

Who is Marc Jacobs?

Short hair, three-day beard and muscular physique, the designer haunt the people pages of magazines around the world, a celebrity conquered after sixteen years in the artistic direction of Vuitton. Its longevity with the world's first luxury brand, the golden egg of the luxury giant LVMH, will remain exceptional in the world of fashion.

Born in 1963 into a wealthy New York family, where he studied at the prestigious Parsons School, Marc Jacobs became a fashion legend at a very young age.

His graduation collection of extra-large, hand-knitted sweaters with pop-colored smileys seduces financier Robert Duffy. He will launch the brand Marc Jacobs with the creator and remains today his business partner and his confidant.

A "scandalous" collection in 1989

High after the death of his father, by his grandmother who gave him the taste of fashion, Marc Jacobs signed in 1986 his first collection under his name. The following year, he was named "New Talent of the Year" by the influential Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA).

He worked briefly with the brand Perry Ellis, for which he created in 1989 a collection inspired by an emerging movement, grunge. A media coup that makes it definitely famous. Fashion editors tear off this promising creator. In 1992, the CFDA even awarded him the prize for the women's stylist of the year.

Despite this meteoric rise, he is often described in his entourage as fragile, sometimes lacking self-confidence.

A funk, trashy and chic fashion designer

In 1994, Marc Jacobs presents an energetic collection that he describes as "a little funk, a little trash and a little chic", summarizing pretty well his style of the time. It also has a taste for what is not yet called vintage, including wholesale women clothing pieces in casual outfits.

Spotted by Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, he arrived at Vuitton in 1997. His mission: to launch in ready-to-wear the famous trunk-leather maker, founded almost a century and a half earlier.

For the first women's parade, in March 1998, the models presented themselves in amazement without a single bag. Very quickly, it gives a serious blow to youth to the mark. Often surrounded by big names in the world of art, including Richard Prince or Takashi Murakami, he reinterprets the famous monogram. The bags are snapped around the world.

In ready-to-wear, the collections follow each other and are not alike, while remaining luxurious. In September 2012, he presents checkered silhouettes, one of the most famous and old Louis Vuitton paintings, which the colors in lemon yellow and moss green. The next season, the collection is retro-chic, all silk, satin, and feathers, with a lot of grays.

Clothes, glasses, and perfume

His own brand, which runs in New York, is also a hit. In 2001, he created a second line, Marc by Marc Jacobs, followed by children's collections, glasses and even a feminine perfume, Daisy, in 2007 and a first male perfume, Bang, in 2011.

He recently launched a cosmetics line distributed in Sephora stores, owned by LVMH.

The internal rhythm of the series of collections will have effects on his personal life: after the first detox in 2000, he begins to consume drugs and alcohol and must undergo a second course in March 2007, the day after a parade Vuitton in Paris.

It is now an IPO project brand Marc Jacobs he intends to devote himself. It will not be over yet with LVMH: the brand is owned in part by the luxury group, alongside the American designer and his partner Robert Duffy. At Vuitton, it is Nicolas Ghesquière, ex-Balenciaga, who should succeed him ...