NEW YORK, Feb 16, 2002/ FWD/ --- Just one day after Marc Jacobs treated the fashion flock to a party that segregated the proletarians from the apparatchiks (and fed them, respectively, portobellos and pizza), the diminutive designer presented his Marc line -- a '60s-Behind-the-Iron-Curtain revival.

Mismatched and mostly miscast as chic, the poor-girl look has always been a Jacobs specialty.

But blended into the grandma knits, retro piping, pin-tucked shoulders and home-boiled colors, there was always a whiff of a new and exciting romanticism, which perhaps accounts for Jacobs' success among super-young, super-rich deconstructivists.

This season, alas, the poetry is gone, leaving behind a throng of grim, awkwardly-fitting clothes and a collection that seemed assembled in a hurry.

Could it be that the capitalists at Louis Vuitton have run away with Marc's magic?

The problem? We've seen all these looks before.

Much of the collection -- specifically, the multi-striped poorboy sweaters, fitted jackets with oversized buttons, bohemian-print blouses, and murky-colored jeans and corduroys, seemed stolen from past Marc collections.

Two multi-tone homespun dresses came straight from Marc Jacobs' spring line.

Even the accessories were nothing new.

Believe us, by now the Marc girl has a wardrobe complete with long striped woolen scarves and '70s, stacked-heel boots, although maybe not in the novel green and navy tones presented this time around.

Even hair and makeup were nothing to write home about.

A mauve color was used on the eyes to mimic, as Dick Page explained, "the look of the natural eyelid color."

That, combined with some powder on the cheeks, was the entire makeup story -- and the models' hair by Guido was left to look like the "girl had not been touched."

All told, there were still some attractive elements.

The pants, slender-legged and boot-cut, with back-pocket stripes, will undoubtedly be a wardrobe mainstay among fashionable minors; as will the fitted velvet blazers, washed cotton trenches, and one fantastic moleskin army coat.