Marc Jacobs, BFA Fashion Design ’84

Celebrated designer Marc Jacobs, BFA Fashion Design ’84, has elevated his label and the field by refining his creative vision and collaborative approach across collections.

Persistence of Vision: Marc Jacobs on Fashion

Celebrated designer Marc Jacobs, BFA Fashion Design ’84, has elevated his label and the field by refining his creative vision and collaborative approach across collection. “Design is an evolutionary process,” says Jacobs. “I can never tell what the end of the process will be without going through it.” Jacobs sat down with Parsons School of Design executive dean, Joel Towers, to talk about his approach and people like Perry Ellis, who steered him to Parsons.

JOEL TOWERS: Marc, we are delighted to honor you and LVMH and have this opportunity to talk about your celebrated career. Let’s start with how you came to Parsons.

MARC JACOBS: Thank you; I’m proud to be honored. My Parsons story starts at Charivari, the boutique where I worked in high school and met Perry Ellis, a designer I admired. Perry was very gracious and introduced me to his design assistants, Jed Krascella and Patricia Pastor, who were Parsons graduates. He said that if I was serious about fashion — which I was — I should go to Parsons. So when the guidance counselor asked what I planned after high school, I said I was applying to Parsons. I knew that not many people were accepted, but I was jaded and pretty audacious. I said, “I’m going to Parsons or I’m not going to school.” The counselor replied, “That’s not very sensible. You need a backup plan.” But I don’t believe in plan B’s. Parsons was my plan A.

JT: You mentioned Perry Ellis; both he and Chester Weinberg awarded you a Gold Thimble for your Parsons senior collection. Did they influence your design?

MJ: I felt a primal connection to Perry. He was a unique voice on Seventh Avenue and made a statement each season with shows influenced by a variety of sources — The Canterbury Tales, and Spain, for example. Perry’s shows had a whimsical, transformative quality; his collections were more fashion than clothes.

JT: What was Parsons like then?

MJ: Tracy Reese, Susan Martin, Chris Isles, and I found each other, and Tracy and I became particularly close. We would sit at my dining room table all night — to the point of tears — doing assignments. Parsons is where you learn that it isn’t finished until it’s finished.

JT: Students still stay up late, pushing themselves. How do you approach each new collection? As a radical departure? By revisiting themes?

MJ: Design is an evolutionary process — I can never tell what the end of the process will be without going through it. From season to season, the details, colors, and fabrics change, but the approach pretty much stays the same. You revisit things you love, at the core of your vocabulary — razor-cut fabrics, dresses, doublefaced coats. That probably goes back to my grandmother taking me to Bergdorf Goodman and trying on a red cashmere double-faced cape.

JT: Collaboration is essential at Parsons; students work with peers throughout the university, creating opera sets and orchestral performance wear, for example. Collaboration is important to you, too. Tell us about that.

MJ: Everything is a collaboration; it feels very organic, like when I asked Stephen Sprouse to collaborate with us at Louis Vuitton or Cher to work with us on this season’s ads. And each season begins with me working closely with the designers, stylists, makeup artists, photographers, and others. I’m part of a team that includes press, buyers, merchandisers, and friends. I mean, I draw and learned to drape and make patterns in school, but I couldn’t do all of this myself, do the shows….

JT: What role does the runway play?

MJ: Like theater, like a concert, nothing comes close to the emotional pull of a live performance. During Fashion Week, people rush from show to show. Then they arrive at the Armory and forget where they are for a few minutes during this escapist theater you’ve made, with creatures parading around. It transports you into a thought, a mood, a spirit, a world. That’s what Perry’s work did for me. A fashion show is more than a presentation of clothing.

JT: What about digital platforms for fashion?

MJ: Social media is a tool and a curse. We want to show off and we want attention; I get it. But I want us to do it in real life. Where are the clubs? I love the ritual of dressing up and going out…. I want to feel the fabrics and try on the clothes and interact with the salespeople.

JT: We need to consider human factors and the implications of technology. Marc, we teach students to learn from failure. Is that part of your creative process?

MJ: There’s no such thing as failure — it’s all a matter of context and timing. OK, so showing orange tights probably wasn’t the greatest idea for a fall show, but it doesn’t mean that another time, orange tights couldn’t look great. And I don’t know that anything is ever finished. You can show a dress and then a week later think it doesn’t seem relevant — or see something you’d change. Everything is in perpetual change, even if it’s finished for the moment.

JT: It becomes the raw material for the next iteration. Any parting advice for young designers?

MJ: If you’re passionate about fashion — don’t give up. People might say that’s being stubborn, but it’s working for me.

This interview was originally published in the Fall 2015 issue of re:D, the alumni magazine of Parsons School of Design:
https://issuu.com/newschool/docs/re-d___interactive-pages?e=1362291/30582189