Marc Jacobs

Marc Jacobs (born April 9, 1963 in New York City) is an American fashion designer. He is the head designer for Marc Jacobs, as well as the diffusion line Marc by Marc Jacobs. Jacobs is currently the Creative Director of the prestigious French design house Louis Vuitton.

Biography

Marc Jacobs was born in New York City to Jewish American parents. He attended the High School of Art and Design in New York City and graduated in 1981. He lived in Teaneck, New Jersey with his mother, sister and younger brother, and attended Teaneck High School. At fifteen, Jacobs worked as a stockboy at Charivari, an avant-garde clothing boutique in New York City. From there, Jacobs entered Parsons The New School for Design in New York City. During his tenure at Parsons, Jacobs won the Perry Ellis Gold Thimble Award in 1984 and in the same year was also awarded the Chester Weinberg Gold Thimble Award and the Design Student of the Year Award.

While still at Parsons, Jacobs designed and sold his first line of hand-knit sweaters. He designed his first collection for Reuben Thomas, Inc., under the Sketchbook label. Following his studies at Parsons, Jacobs began to design at Perry Ellis (Ellis had recently died, so he wasn't there). Jacobs became prominent on the fashion scene when he designed a "grunge" collection for Perry Ellis, leading to his dismissal in 1993. With Robert Duffy, Jacobs formed Jacobs Duffy Designs Inc., which continues to this day. In 1986, backed by Onward Kashiyama USA, Inc., Jacobs designed his first collection bearing the Marc Jacobs label. In 1987 Jacobs was the youngest designer to have ever been awarded the fashion industry's highest tribute, The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Perry Ellis Award for New Fashion Talent.

Jacobs and Duffy joined the women's design unit of Tristan Russo in 1989 as Vice President and President, respectively. In addition, Jacobs oversaw the design of the various women's licensees. In 1992, the Council of Fashion Designers of America, once again bestowed Jacobs with a great honor: The Women's Designer of the Year Award. In 1994 he produced his first full collection of menswear.

Jacobs is a prominent fixture in the New York City celebrity scene, having become something of a celebrity himself. The audience for his fashion shows typically includes celebrities like Kim Gordon and Vincent Gallo. Most of his collections make references to the fashions of past decades from the forties to the eighties. Disputing the claim by the designer Oscar de la Renta that Jacobs is a mere copyist, the New York Times Critic Guy Trebay has written "unlike the many brand-name designers who promote the illusion that their output results from a single prodigious creativity, Mr. Jacobs makes no pretense that fashion emerges full blown from the head of one solitary genius". Explaining his clothes, Jacobs has said "what I prefer is that even if someone feels hedonistic, they don’t look it. Curiosity about sex is much more interesting to me than domination. ... My clothes are not hot. Never. Never."

In May 2009, Jacobs hosted the 'Model and Muse' themed Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala in New York with supermodel Kate Moss.

Louis Vuitton

In 1997, Jacobs was appointed Creative Director of luxury French fashion house, Louis Vuitton, where he created the company's first ready-to-wear line.

Jacobs is famous for collaborating with many popular artists for his Louis Vuitton collections. Vuitton has worked in conjunction with Stephen Sprouse, Takashi Murakami and most recently American artists Richard Prince and Kanye West.

As of 2009, Jacobs remains the Creative Director for Louis Vuitton.

Advertising

Jacobs is notorious for his peculiar choices in models for his advertising campaigns. For example, in Spring 2007, Jacobs chose child actress Dakota Fanning to star in his ad campaign. All the clothes were shrunk, and the shoes made in children's sizes for the young actress. His ad campaigns have also featured the musicians Stephen Malkmus, Jarvis Cocker and Michael Stipe of R.E.M.. Chloë Sevigny has also appeared in Marc Jacobs advertisements. The Russian pop duo t.A.T.u. became the faces of Marc by Marc Jacobs for the fall-winter ’08 campaign in Russia.

The German photographer Juergen Teller shoots Jacobs's campaigns every season. In early 2008, Victoria Beckham was featured in Marc Jacobs magazine advertisements, while M.I.A. modeled for diffusion line Marc by Marc Jacobs.

Director Sofia Coppola is the model of the Marc Jacobs fragrance.

Company

In recent years, the Marc Jacobs perfume brand has increased the number of boutiques and direct point of service locations. This is evident in the signature list of cities featured in the company's print advertisements (although such adverts do not provide an entirely accurate or exhaustive survey of the brand's retail operations). Some of these branded showrooms present only a certain portion of the company's several brands (The Marc Jacobs Collection, Marc by Marc Jacobs, and Little Marc, a children's line) . A number of branded boutiques, for instance, feature only the Marc by Marc Jacobs product line. As of May 2008, Marc Jacobs boutiques in the United States include multiple locations in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, as well as shops in Bal Harbour, Las Vegas, Guam, Chicago, Savannah, Boston, and Provincetown, Massachusetts. Worldwide, other such stand-alone stores are found in Europe (Paris, London, Madrid, Copenhagen and Moscow), the Middle East (Beirut, Riyadh, Dubai and Kuwait), across Japan (multiple locations in Tokyo and Osaka, as well as Kyoto, Kobe, Nagoya, Sendai, Shizuoka, Nagano, Chiba, Matsuyama, and Tottori), Korea (multiple locations in Seoul) and elsewhere in Asia (multiple locations in Hong Kong and Taipei, as well as Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Jakarta, and Bangkok). The various ready-to-wear and accessory collections are also widely available at leading department stores around the globe.

In February 2008, Jacobs was accused of plagiarism. It was revealed that a scarf from his collection had the exact same design as a scarf created in the 1950s by Swedish designer Gösta Olofsson, after Esquire writer Rob Millan discovered the scarf's use in a print ad and reported the allegation in the January 2008 issue. In early March, Göran Olofsson, the son of Gösta Olofsson, and Marc Jacobs settled on the issue through monetary compensation.

Personal life

In 2009, Jacobs was ranked 15th on Out magazine's annual list of "50 Most Powerful Gay Men and Women in America".

Jacobs, who is openly gay, is currently in a relationship with Brazilian advertising executive Lorenzo Martone. In March 2009, Women's Wear Daily reported that the pair was engaged after a year of dating. In June of 2009, the couple announced they would hold their wedding in Provincetown, Massachusetts.