Marc Jacobs Ushers In a Seismic Shift
By: Godfrey Deeny
Photos by: Gruber-FWD
NEW YORK, Sep 18, 2002/ FWD/ --- Better reset your fashion compass.
The needle that has pointed permanently to Milan and Paris as the nerve centers of fashion
for the past century, shifted a couple of degrees last night at the Marc Jacobs catwalk show
in Manhattan.
It wasn't that the clothes in themselves were some unexpected paradigm, but rather that
the combination of a brilliant collection and celebrity gridlock in the front rows and
aisles marks Jacobs' shows as the premiere draw on the global fashion calendar.
Aisles did we say, well yes.
So many stars thronged around the custom-made tent on Ninth Avenue that Benicio del Toro
ended up crouching on aluminum steps.
Outside, hundreds of handsome kids pleaded for passes into the high-security show with a
head-spinningly glamorous front row - Sandra Bullock (looking pretty amazing), Hilary Swank,
Marianne Faithfull, Zoe Cassavetes, Christy Turlington, Sandra Bernhard, Ali Larter, Kyra
Sedgwick, Jennifer Tilly, Wes Anderson, Anna Sui, Deborah Harry, Helena Christensen,
Chad Lowe, The Donald with Melania Knauss, plus musicians Nick Rhodes, Usher, Chilli
of TLC, Thurston Moore and others to numerous to mention.
But the biggest flashbulbs were reserved for Puff Daddy, who descended from a Hummer
H2 with a petite Kelly Osbourne.
Clearly all this razzamatazz would amount to a mound of used buttons if the clothes
weren't any good.
As it turned out, they were great.
In a break with tradition, Jacobs, who tends to prefer newer upcoming faces on his catwalk,
sent out a hit parade of mega stars - including Gisele, Eva, Shalom, Bridget Hall, Amber
Valetta, Carolyn Murphy and Michelle Hicks.
His look was ladylike yet edgy, with cashmere cardigans in sherbet colors and tiny bows,
high-waisted, to-the-knee satin skirts, broken boucle wool Chanel-like suits, and calico
Capri pants worn with silk wrap coats.
Think the astronauts' wives at the final political rally in "The Right Stuff."
Jacobs' low-cut lacy tops and dresses in pink and beige will be widely copied, as will
his slip dresses and curvy cocktail numbers with snazzy silver straps.
Bridget Hall smoldered in a black slip with pink trim, while Shalom glowed in one look as
the soundtrack roared out L.A. band X's guitar-jangling punk.
"I was thinking of Cindy Sherman self-portraits, the photography of Richard Kern and
Russ Myers' "Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill!" Jacobs told FWD backstage, waving his hands
to indicate that he had lots of other influences besides these.
Creative types love Jacobs because of his inventiveness and curiosity.
His fashion, like so much modern art and music, references earlier eras, but he always
gives it his own spin, so the end result is refreshingly honest.
He may not be fashion's most inventive designer or its greatest tailor or even creative
leader, but no one has his finger more firmly attached to fashion's pulse.
Click here for more photos.
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