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A few minutes isn’t a long time to get your point across, especially when it’s a point you’ve worked tirelessly to conceive, create and refine. But as only Marc Jacobs could, in just six minutes, he left a lasting impression on a highly satisfied crowd—all with a poignant message packaged, of course, in a wildly fun and brilliant show.
With the U.S. presidential race beginning to ramp up and political regression threatening to continue its warpath, the designer served up some food for thought for Fall 2024.
Admittedly, the world of fashion can be a bit of a bubble sometimes, as we often find ourselves surrounded by like-minded people in places where a spectrum of identities gleefully merge. But while we’re not always feeling the overt pinch of shifting political climates, fashion has proven to be a medium for messages as emphatic as any other art form. Throughout his four decades in business, Jacobs has constantly probed the culture in which he creates and designs to express his sentiments with humour and heart.
For Fall 2023, he took a swipe at AI and our shrinking attention spans. This season, the designer seems to satirise the growing conservatism in the U.S.—and just about everywhere else in the world.
Throwback references to Marilyn Monroe, her iconic white halter dress from The Seven Year Itch, and Jackie ‘O’ Kennedy, through 50s style skirt suits, were cartoonishly recreated. Whether it was his intention or not, these funhouse depictions seemed to satirise traditional feminine archetypes, perhaps poking a bit of fun at governing bodies and fundamentalists that aim to preserve these binary notions of womanhood. Exaggerated lace tea dresses, tilted silhouettes and ballooning separates also seemed to riff on caricatures of ‘Sunday best’ looks and debutantes, and the saturated colour palette even seemed like a tongue-in-cheek afront to ‘quiet luxury’.
Jacobs’ explanation of this collection spoke of a “deeper pursuit of joy” and an active choice towards unbridled self-expression. It’s unclear if he really was aiming his microscope at convention, but in a time of political uncertainty, madcap creatives like Jacobs never creative in vain, and as his words cemented, our future is still unwritten.
“I am steadfast in my daily practice of choosing love over hate, faith over fear and finding pause in reflection,” read his shownotes. “I believe in living with authenticity—free from validation and permission of absurd conservatism and societal norms.”
