How to keep going? Marc Jacobs, the prolific designer, has made a career of propelling himself into the future. But he could not have known that his second runway collection of the year would be shown just days after the US Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade, a landmark decision that protected American women’s right to an abortion for almost 50 years.
“We have art in order not to die of the truth,” Friedrich Nietzsche said. Words to hold close, according to Jacobs, who added in his show notes that “creativity is essential to living.”
Instead of looking as deflated as many in America feel right now, Jacobs’ models were elongated, uplifted in towering platform Mary Janes, their silhouettes in many cases as narrow as the marble hallway of the New York Public Library where they walked. Some bared their torsos in teeny triangle tops and low-rise skirts. Others were enveloped in bulbous Easter egg-coloured knits twisted and tied around the body, dressed in shimmering rosette megasleeves or done up in coated cotton dresses that were often worn with a matching babushka. (One, in silver metallic, resembled tin foil.) The blanket-like wrapping of the garments seemed to build on an idea of protection that Jacobs has been exploring for several seasons, but could not feel more timely.
In recent years, the designer’s runway budget has been pared back as the overall business underwent a restructuring. But the care and effort put into it was made evident in the season’s credit list, which not only included the typical names — producers, stylists, nail technicians — but also every single person who works on the collection, from bag development to knitwear and ready-to-wear. Even the production temps were recognised. It was a choice.
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