September 14, 2017 |
This was beyond. Which is kind of stating the obvious, we suppose, because it’s Marc Jacobs and isn’t he always bloody brilliant? Spesh when it comes to serving up a cracker of an NY closer that’s totally worth the mad rush to the airport afterwards. Started dead on time (almost – 6.03pm) in a stripped back Park Avenue Armory with just a single row of chairs around the outside edges and a soundtrack of, well, no soundtrack at all. Silence. Marc entitled this collection “Somewhere” – a collection that came from a journey into his own imagination over the summer while his friends were on vacation.
And the good thing about starting a collection in your head is you can really go anywhere – here Marc meshing together eras, “twisting fantasy and reality” and conjuring up, as he said, “a reimagining of seasons past somewhere beyond the urban landscape of New York City.” Which meant sportswear. Sportswear made decadent. Opulent sequinned gowns that hung just off the shoulder and worn with luminous floral boas were mixed up with oversized Town and Country checkered suiting, cinched at the waist, big varsity jumpers and sensible sandals, all the way back to again to silk gowns that were expertly twisted and wrapped around the model’s bodies, opera gloves and jewelled brooches.
Other accessories had a Seventies tinge – nylon bumbags that sat on the waist, heftier gym bags or messenger bags, imprinted with a rubbery retro Marc Jacobs logo. There were turbans, different ones, inspired by Kate Moss’ iconic Marc Met Ball look, where she insisted, in a way only la Moss can, that she wanted a turban to match her dress. Here, they twisted above the model’s heads, part Nubian princess, part Park Avenue grandma. They were worn with Diana Ross-style kaftan dresses and silk smock tops, the vivid prints suggesting, as the whole collection did, both the familiar and the exotic, the far off. There was a lot more too, of course. And we could go on. But we won’t. We have a plane to catch. So over and out from New York. See you in London.
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans
