Marc Jacobs: The Emperor’s New Clothes

Originally published in Fashion Wire Daily on Sept. 11, 2007.

The Marc Jacobs show started two hours late last night, but then again, who ever expects it to start on time? All the conventions of a typical fashion show are hardly the point at Marc Jacobs, one of the only designers in New York who can get away with doing just about anything he wants and still retain pope of American fashion status.

Indeed, it’s almost like taking a semi-annual trip to church to worship at the altar of MJ. For good reason. Whether you love his collections or hate them, they have a way of setting the tone of the season. And because he and his people are so clued into what’s cool, you are pretty much guaranteed to find out what trends to expect from fashion in the next six months. Will it be Wednesday Addams goth punk? Grunge? Soviet Constructivist? Jacobs had everyone waiting at the edge of their steamy seats for his Spring ‘08 presentation, held in the Lexington Armory, wondering what would happen next.

When people’s limits of patience and sanity had reached a pinnacle – being stuffed like a sardine on uncomfortable bleachers has a tendency to do that to people – the show finally started with a moment that felt like we were watching a TV game show directed by David Lynch.

Jacobs – all trim, tanned and boyish – jogged out onto the runway, which consisted of multi-level whitewashed planks of wood, perspective line drawings, giant wooden cube frames and semi-transparent screens. He waved to the audience, who let out a collective cheer as though they’d just won a million dollars or maybe a nice sofa. Was this his way of apologizing for running so late? Not really – he just opted to run the show backwards, with the final bow followed by the full run of show. Meanwhile, projected onto the screens was a countdown of numbers and later, a previously shot video by artist Charles Atlas of the models walking down the runway in just their skivvies.

As the models solemnly walked out, the audience sitting in hushed reverance in this cathedral of fashion, you got a glimpse that the collection was as mixed up as this order of operations, a collage of materials such as lace, crepe, satin chiffon and even long strands of thread that resembled silly string.

These were all pieced together in a seemingly haphazard, Dadaist manner – “re-constructed” is what Jacobs called it in his program notes – as though they were the rescued parts left of moth-eaten dresses stowed away in an attic or pieces of different patterns all spliced together. One-third of a dress here, a partial tuxedo jacket there; elsewhere there were color blocked tops, georgette floral toga capes and partial shirt dresses with semi-transparent panels of chiffon interspersed.

Accessories included fetish-like pumps and sandals that gave the illusion of being too small for the foot, hilarious pave mouse necklaces and rings, pave lifesaver hoop earrings, double bags with a smaller clasp purse affixed to a larger attache. Placed in the models’ mad librarian-gone-bonkers hair were black spray-painted objects like the Concorde, a Duchampian bicycle wheel and a cartoonish ribbon that stiffly sat on top of the hair. Think Dali in a lobster hat.

But it was really what the clothes revealed underneath that was the focus of the collection – the foundation garments. This was Jacobs’ take on sex for the highbrow, nerdy set; a witty way of exploring sensuality that avoided the typical feminine stereotypes, or so he said. Satin tap “pan-tease” and bras in nude and black, sheer corsets that revealed their construction and a variety of negligees.

Jacobs said he started with the bras and panties and built the collection up around them because he wanted to explore sex – and “sexy” dressing in an ironic or perverse way. “I’m not known for doing sexy clothes,” he said. “This is what I thought was sexiest.”

By taking everything out of context, and mixing it up in a cartoon-like, madcap way, Jacobs played with the things that typically represent sexuality and sensuality, forcing it to be looked at from a different angle – a new perspective.

Two years ago in Paris, conceptual jokester Viktor & Rolf’s “upside-down” collection also started with the show in reverse order, with clothes that had been turned upside down and all mixed up as well. Like Jacobs, they’re also well known for their shows-as-spectacles, which often times end up overshadowing the clothes.

Is that what happened to Marc Jacobs last night? The jury might still be out on that one. As Jacobs remarked after the show, his productions each season have turned into the staging of a theater piece.

“We’ve become almost fetishistic about doing things in a very conventional way,” said Jacobs. “I was bored. We design clothes every season.”

So, in the end, perhaps designing a collection around undergarments was just a case of the Emperor’s New Clothes. Will people rave about it? Of course. And will people buy it? In droves.