The Marc Jacobs catwalk show is the gravitational centre of New Yorkfashion week. This collection is the one which, more than any other, points to the direction ahead. Over six months, a team of hundreds and a budget of millions go into producing a collection of, in this instance, 45 outfits.
The show began on the stroke of 8pm. Although the industry has mostly adjusted to Jacobs’ latter-day obsession with punctuality, this still forced more than a few Hollywood names to break into a run to claim their front row seats. By 8.05pm, the show was over, such was the breakneck speed at which 45 models stomped down the runway, and Jacobs had taken his bow.
Jacobs’ approach is both twisted, and perfectly logical. The scale of the fashion industry is such that any catwalk show for a major brand is a taster of what the collection as sold on the shopfloor will be, rather than an exhaustive menu. What matters is to convey a message, an image strong enough to sear into the retinas of the industry and ensure that brand has a voice in the fashion conversation for the season. And this show, for all the tripped-out energy, did just that.
