Marc Jacobs

Marc Jacobs (born April 9, 1963, New York, New York, U.S.) American fashion designer renowned for his sartorial interpretations of trends in popular culture, perhaps most notably his “grunge” collection, which was credited with launching the grunge look of the 1990s.

Jacobs was raised with his brother and sister in New York City, where his parents were employed as agents for the William Morris talent agency. When Jacobs was seven years old, his father died. His mother subsequently remarried and divorced several times, each of which required the family to relocate. When Jacobs was a teenager, he went to live on Manhattan’s Upper West Side with his paternal grandmother, who, having taught him as a child how to knit, encouraged his growing interest in fashion design. By age 15, he had enrolled in the High School of Art and Design and was working at the upscale clothing boutique Charivari, where he met the fashion designer Perry Ellis, who became his mentor.

After graduating from high school (1981), Jacobs enrolled at Parsons School of Design (now Parsons The New School for Design). For his graduation project, he designed a collection of oversized hand-knit sweaters, which earned him some of the school’s highest honours. He subsequently sold the collection to Charivari. The collection was marketed with the aid of executive vice president Barbara Weiser as Marc and Barbara and received positive reviews.

In 1984 Jacobs was hired by the clothing manufacturer Reuben Thomas, Inc., for which he designed the Sketchbook label (1984–85). In the same year, with company executive Robert Duffy, he launched Jacobs Duffy Designs Inc. Jacobs thereafter secured the financial backing to design under his own label (1986–88), for which he became the youngest designer to win the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Perry Ellis Award for New Fashion Talent (1987)—one of the industry’s highest honours.

In 1988 Jacobs was named vice president of women’s design at Perry Ellis, where he gained international recognition for his revolutionary “grunge” collection, which he debuted in 1992. Inspired by the emerging grunge music scene, the collection featured unorthodox combinations—such as flowered girlish dresses paired with combat boots—to achieve a disheveled and individualistic look. The designs were shown by waifish models, including Kate Moss—the antithesis to the glamorous and curvaceous models then in vogue. Jacobs was christened the “guru of grunge” by Women’s Wear Daily and named CFDA Womenswear Designer of the Year (1992) largely because of the monumental collection, which ushered in the grunge look of the 1990s. Jacobs’s employment with Perry Ellis, however, was promptly terminated—a decision believed by many industry professionals to have been a result of his radical departure from the brand’s traditionally clean-cut image.

In 1993 Jacobs Duffy Designs Inc. created its own design and licensing company, Marc Jacobs International Company, L.P., thereafter relaunching Jacobs’s signature brand, which debuted a line of menswear the following year. In 1997 Jacobs opened the first of his numerous boutiques and—in exchange for the financial support of his fashion house—signed on as creative director for Louis Vuitton, where he revitalized the brand, designing its first line of ready-to-wear clothing and expanding its accessories line.

In the early 21st century Jacobs globally expanded his signature brand and launched a more-affordable line of sportswear, Marc by Marc Jacobs (2001). He also collaborated with others, including designer Stephen Sprouse, with whom he launched the immediately successful Louis Vuitton Speedy graffiti handbag (2001), which looked as if it had been spray-painted with the company’s name. In 2003 he worked with the Japanese visual artist Takashi Murakami to produce the critically acclaimed Louis Vuitton Eye Love Monogram collection, which replaced the brand’s traditional beige-and-brown monogrammed canvas with a multicoloured palette featuring pop-art graphics, such as cartoon eyes. In 2005 Jacobs launched a line of children’s wear, Little Marc Jacobs.

In 2013 he stepped down as creative director of Louis Vuitton in order to concentrate on his own line. That year he launched the makeup brand Marc Jacobs Beauty. However, his fashion empire subsequently struggled. In 2015 he closed the popular Marc by Marc Jacobs, though lower-priced attire was added to his signature collection. In addition, a number of his retail stores were closed amid layoffs and upper management turnover.