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Would it be New York Fashion Week without a huge celebrity moment? Of course not! Marc Jacobs – New York’s father of fashion – knows this, sending a midriff-baring, mullet-y Miley Cyrus down the runway to close his Fall Winter 2020 show.
Miley Cyrus has been a longtime favourite of Jacobs. She first starred in the brand’s spring 2014 campaign and just last year collaborated with the designer on a special hoodie with her Happy Hippie Foundation for Planned Parenthood.
But the power of celebrity has a habit of outshining the work, and in this case, we must look beyond Cyrus’s abs and toned deltoids to truly honour the genius of Jacobs.
Unlike last September’s colour-charged, print-loaded euphoria, this season saw an impressive restraint from Jacobs. While the collection remained gloriously incongruous – ballgowns and berets, leather gloves and ladylike pearls – silhouette and form was much more streamlined. Gone were the fanciful ruffles and puffs of organza flowers, instead, a line-up of ’60s shift dresses in powdery hues, eloquent coats, sharp suiting and humble knitwear.
Of course, Jacobs will always have performance and eclecticism, that’s at the very heart of the designer, the brand and the person, but this season it felt a little different. There were the crazy antics – by way of spectacle (the troupe of dancers which models had to duck and weave, for example) and in terms of the fashion – but they were more refined. Everything felt a little more grown-up.
Design felt decorous – but in a distinctly Marc Jacobs way. While legs were on show (even highlighted by way of glossy lurex hosiery in lemon curd and candy), the shorter hemlines were prim rather than shocking, harping back to the ’60s. Genteel twinsets, pillbox hats and quaint gloves evoked a Jackie Onassis Zeitgeist, while footwear also took a conservative turn in the form of square-toe flats and pointed kitten heels.
Headwear, as it has so many times before, was keynote. Tonal handkerchieves tied simply around models hair, berets sat askew with a French lean, big bowler hats in fuzzy yellow felt turned upwards, while black variations were veiled in spidery netting. There was even a gift wrapping bow and fluffy leopard cossack hat worn by Liya Kebede, purposefully lopsided and affixed with a crystal brooch.
Gloves, too, starred, tracing almost the entire arm in both leather and lurex and cut off at the wrist, the accessory circled back to the ladylike sentiment of the collection as a whole.
Another example of the brilliant, restless mind of Marc Jacobs, there is no one better to take New York Fashion Week’s final bow. Hats off to you, Mr. Jacobs. And you weren’t bad either, Miley.
