Marc Jacobs closes New York Fashion Week with a colorful trip to ... somewhere
Reporting from New York — As is tradition, Marc Jacobs’ runway show closed the official New York Fashion Week calendar here. And, just as he has for as many seasons as we can remember, he presented his collection at the Park Avenue Armory, a stripped-back space so expansive that when the models first appeared on the catwalk, the guests seated at the far end of the runway could see little more than colorful specks on the horizon.
As those specks came into focus, outsized silhouettes, bright colors and exaggerated floral patterns combined to make the models seem like travelers from some faraway exotic locale, a feeling heightened by printed scarves wrapped and twisted into towering turbans (the handiwork of milliner Stephen Jones).
Jacobs didn’t cite any specific global/tribal inspiration for the collection in the show notes, saying only that the collection “is the re-imagining of seasons past somewhere beyond the urban landscape of New York City.”
“During the last few months while friends vacationed, we took a holiday in our heads and went somewhere,” read the notes, “twisting fantasy into reality through exaggerated, decadent and exotic sportswear silhouettes.”
Jacobs came back from that “somewhere” with a vibrant color palette that popped with pinks and yellows (two of the spring season’s big color stories), voluminous outerwear that ranged from translucent rain slickers and roomy cardigans to double-breasted overcoats, and pants that ranged from super-slouchy wide-legged trousers to shorts. Dresses went from cocktail-length frocks to flowing caftan-like creations, and fabric was slung over shoulders or cinched at the waist with thick, braided belts.
Bags, including fanny packs, duffels and backpacks, were served up in the same bold patterns, each one dangling a rectangular plastic tag that read “somewhere.”
The show’s final look was a memorable one, partly because the sleeveless butter-yellow dress with an outsized flower at the left shoulder was on-trend and eye-catching, and partly because it was Kaia Gerber, daughter of Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber (and face of Jacobs’ Daisy fragrance), whose catwalk turn Wednesday night wrapped the first New York Fashion Week run of her modeling career.
Given Gerber’s presence at a handful of high-profile shows this week (including her debut at the Sept. 7 Calvin Klein show), it’s clear her career’s taking her somewhere.
And by the looks of it, her “somewhere” is shaping up to be just as colorful and exuberant as Jacobs’.
For more musings on all things fashion and style, follow me at @ARTschorn.
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