Fashion Week 2009 – Marc by Marc Jacobs

Allow me to continue to wax poetic about Marc Jacobs for a moment. In addition to being knock-me-over-with-a-feather brilliant, he might be the hardest working man in fashion. Not only is he the creative director of Louis Vuitton, a huge fashion house in and of itself, but he has multiple brands under his own name that each include clothing, shoes, handbags, and accessories. Anyone that knows the industry knows that he’s obviously not designing every piece of every line himself, but he is the person responsible for holding all of the conflicting ideas about all of these lines and their directions in his head at once. And anyone that saw his Collection show from earlier in the week can attest to the massive difference in direction between that line and his diffusion Marc by Marc Jacobs line. But you’ve got to make the jump to find out why.

Jacobs’ higher-end collection was an opulent, self-confident love letter writ large to the grimy, glittering days of 1980s New York City. It was Duran Duran meets Alexis Carrington mixed with a bit of modern downtown cool, and possibly my favorite collection in years. Marc by Marc Jacobs, on the other hand, had more of a 1960s New England feel to it; slightly preppy, full of earthy neutrals, and with enough chunky knits, thick belts and tweedy coats to keep me happy and warm for the next ten years (and maybe a party dress thrown in for good measure). These are clothes that I would wear right now. Today. Some of the looks, in fact, are very similar to things that I’ve tried to piece together myself on my shoestring budget. They’re the things that young college girls in my town would pick out in a second, given $300 to spend on a grandpa sweater or plaid dress to wear with tights and brown leather boots. As such, this collection probably isn’t advancing the fashion dialogue, but I’m not sure it’s meant to. These are fashionable, wearable, everyday clothes for those with slightly better means than I have but slightly similar taste. I can respect that, and I look forward to trying it all on in a few months.