Slumped into folding chairs inside his New York studio, renowned designer Marc Jacobs and his brand’s creative director, Joseph Carter, ponder the mood of Jacobs’ Spring 2024 ready-to-wear collection. Jacobs and Carter had spent days stacking wigs onto more wigs, playing with cartoonishly large shapes from head to toe, trying to see what beauty and accessories might look best with the collections’ oversized garments. Behind the camera, Jacobs’ friend and occasional creative collaborator, Sofia Coppola, asks whether they’re favoring a serious look, or something more eccentric — in line with Jacobs’ reputation. “We’re leaning towards entertainment,” Jacobs says, before a wry smile creeps onto his face. “And joy.”
Fusing couture-level spectacle with crowd-pleasing performance has long been Jacobs’ M.O. Since his early days designing for Perry Ellis, fresh off a winning showcase at the Parsons School of Design’s end-of-term fashion show, Jacobs has relished throwing a wrench in the system. In the early ’90s, a distinct penchant for mischief and a grittily glamorous New York edge quickly earned Jacobs the moniker of fashion’s bad boy. High-end and low-end customers alike adored his frisky, unpredictable spirit — both on and off the runway. And with the new millennium fast approaching, the consumer needed Jacobs’ brand of sartorial insouciance. If the calendar was going to reset, why couldn’t personal style do the same? No one in fashion was as trend-averse as Jacobs. He could be the progenitor of a new look, a Christian Dior for the modern woman. If the customer wanted cool, Jacobs would be their shepherd, skipping hand-in-hand with them into the future with abandon.
