Marc Jacobs is a showman and tonight in New York's Park Avenue Armory in a vast eerie expanse of glistening waxy off-white floors and walls, dimmed by a shadowy light that made models look like they were floating along the rim of a huge flickering candle with their silhouettes dancing on the walls, his clothes quite simply stole the show.
It was gothic and dramatic, with a jarring sound track of eerie high pitched tones. Jacobs' show notes explained that the theme of the collection was the Japanese concept of 'Ma' which means 'pause' or 'space'. Space there was aplenty, occupied by the vision of clothes that were opulent and intense, regal and splendid. This was Jane Eyre meets Waiting For Godot, with a touch of Hitchcock's The Birds and plenty of Tim Burton fantasy.
Jacobs piled volume upon volume, so an oversized shearling jacket was styled over the billowing fabrics of a floor-sweeping gown in shimmering silver on black, mannish tweed coats were worn piled on top of extra full 3/4 length skirts and wide legged trousers, exaggerated pussy bow details burst out at the necklines of blouses.
Whilst the color palette was mostly one of dark greys and gothic black, the details were rich and luxurious: sparkling magpie worthy embellishments, piles of colored fur at the shoulders of jackets and hems of gowns and raven-like glistening feathers erupted like plumes of smoke from the sleeves and collars of coats and dresses.
Come show season and gala dinners, there will be plenty of pickings from a liquid silver dress to the fairytale gowns with cinched-in waists and exaggerated skirts. Models teetered bird-like on precariously high exaggerated Bowie style platform boots with smudged black kohl eyes and liquorice colored lips. Without any fanfare, Lady Gaga – whom Jacobs had costumed for her Grammy's Bowie homage – took her turn in the model roll call in an oversized floor length grey coat with fur sleeves.
Natalie Theo
