A diamond - ''Marc Jacobs''

"I love to take things that are everyday and comforting and make them into the most luxurious things in the world." -Marc Jacobs

Marc Jacobs, we love you. We love you for everything you’ve done and everything you have yet to dream up. You are an innovator, a purveyor of all that’s fantastically unique, expressive and alive. We love you behind the scenes, we love you taking a bow on the runway, we love you in the fall, winter, spring and summer. Plain and simple: we adore you – and in our eyes you can do no wrong.

So – as an often over-analytical writer and tremendous fan, this Marc Jacobs piece has proven to be quite challenging for me. I’ve wrestled with different thoughts, emotions, opening lines. No matter which path I chose, it just never seemed quite enough to capture the essence of my feelings for someone I sincerely revere. I decided it’s best to start here: Marc Jacobs, you had me at “grunge.”

By “grunge” I mean Jacobs’ infamous 1992 womenswear collection for Perry Ellis. It was collection that won him the cheers of the critics – including the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Womenswear Designer of the Year Award – and also incited a negative stir (and his ultimate dismissal from the label). But it was this very “stir” that launched the career of the award-winning Parsons grad, catapulting him to fashion icon stature.

In 1993, Jacobs and business partner Robert Duffy launched their own licensing company, and a year later, the initial launch of the Marc Jacobs signature line came to fruition. In 1997, a deal was signed with LVMH, leading Jacobs and Duffy to inject their “youthful vision” into the Louis Vuitton brand while the powerhouse, in turn, backed the growth of the Marc Jacobs brand.

Soon after, the Marc Jacobs Soho store opened its doors, and by 1998 the Marc by Marc Jacobs line became a reality. By 2000, menswear line Marc Jacobs Men launched, in addition to his signature handbag line. Marc Jacobs Perfume came shortly thereafter (the bottle which was supplied by my mom’s company!) and numerous awards followed suit. Even an adorable children’s line, Little Marc, made its way onto the shelves, as did eyewear timepieces, tablewear…

BioGraphy

Marc Jacobs (born April 9, 1963) is an American fashion designer and the head designer forMarc Jacobs, as well as the diffusion line Marc by Marc Jacobs. Jacobs is currently the Creative Director of the French design house Louis Vuitton.

Marc Jacobs was born in New York City. He attended The New School, studying at the university's art and design division, Parsons The New School for Design. He lived in Teaneck, New Jersey with his mother, sister and younger brother, and attended Teaneck High School but also attended and graduated from the New York High School of Art and Design. At fifteen, Jacobs worked as a stockboy at Charivari, an avant-garde clothing boutique in New York City. From there, Jacobs entered The New School in New York City. During his tenure at Parsons, Jacobs won the Perry Ellis Gold Thimble Award in 1984 and in the same year was also awarded the Chester Weinberg Gold Thimble Award and the Design Student of the Year Award.

While still at Parsons, Jacobs designed and sold his first line of hand-knit sweaters. He designed his first collection for Reuben Thomas, Inc., under the Sketchbook label. Following his studies at Parsons, Jacobs began to design at Perry Ellis after its founder had died. Jacobs became prominent on the fashion scene when he designed a "grunge" collection for Perry Ellis, leading to his dismissal in 1993. With Robert Duffy, Jacobs formed Jacobs Duffy Designs Inc., which continues to this day. In 1986, backed by Onward Kashiyama USA, Inc., Jacobs designed his first collection bearing the Marc Jacobs label. In 1987, Jacobs was the youngest designer to have ever been awarded the fashion industry's highest tribute, The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Perry Ellis Award for New Fashion Talent.

Jacobs and Duffy joined the women's design unit of Tristan Russo in 1989 as Vice President and President, respectively. In addition, Jacobs oversaw the design of the various women's licensees. In 1992, the Council of Fashion Designers of America, once again bestowed Jacobs with a great honor: The Women's Designer of the Year Award. In 1994 he produced his first full collection of menswear.

Jacobs is a prominent fixture in the New York City celebrity scene, having become something of a celebrity himself. The audience for his fashion shows typically includes celebrities like Kim Gordon and Vincent Gallo.^[5] Most of his collections make references to the fashions of past decades from the forties to the eighties. Disputing the claim by the designer Oscar de la Renta that Jacobs is a mere copyist, The New York Times critic Guy Trebay has written "unlike the many brand-name designers who promote the illusion that their output results from a single prodigious creativity, Mr. Jacobs makes no pretense that fashion emerges full blown from the head of one solitary genius".Explaining his clothes, Jacobs has said "what I prefer is that even if someone feels hedonistic, they don't look it. Curiosity about sex is much more interesting to me than domination. ... My clothes are not hot. Never. Never."

In May 2009, Jacobs hosted the 'Model and Muse' themed Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala in New York with Kate Moss.

In April 2010, Marc Jacobs was chosen to be among Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world.

In 1997, Jacobs was appointed Creative Director of luxury French fashion house, Louis Vuitton, where he created the company's first ready-to-wear line.

Jacobs has collaborated with many popular artists for his Louis Vuitton collections. Vuitton has worked in conjunction with Stephen Sprouse,Takashi Murakami and most recently American artist Richard Prince and rapper Kanye West.

As of 2010, Jacobs remains the Creative Director for Louis Vuitton.

COMPANY

In recent years, the Marc Jacobs brand has increased the number of boutiques and direct point of service locations. This is evident in the signature list of cities featured in the company's print advertisements (although such adverts do not provide an entirely accurate or exhaustive survey of the brand's retail operations). Some of these branded showrooms present only a certain portion of the company's several brands (The Marc Jacobs Collection, Marc by Marc Jacobs, and Little Marc, a children's line). A number of branded boutiques, for instance, feature only the Marc by Marc Jacobs product line. As of May 2008, Marc Jacobs boutiques in the United States include multiple locations in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, as well as shops in Boston, Bal Harbour, Las Vegas, Guam, Chicago, Savannah, and Provincetown, Massachusetts. Worldwide, other such stand-alone stores are found in Europe (Paris, London, Madrid, Copenhagen and Moscow), the Middle East (Beirut, Riyadh, Dubai, Kuwait, and Doha), across Japan (multiple locations in Tokyo and Osaka, as well as Kyoto, Kobe, Nagoya, Sendai, Shizuoka, Nagano, Chiba, Matsuyama, and Tottori), Korea (multiple locations in Seoul) and elsewhere in Asia (multiple locations in Hong Kong and Taipei, as well as Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Jakarta, and Bangkok). The various ready-to-wear and accessory collections are also widely available at leading department stores around the globe.

In February 2008, Jacobs was accused of plagiarism. It was revealed that a scarf from his collection had exactly the same design as a scarf created in the 1950s by Swedish designer Gösta Olofsson, after Esquire writer Rob Millan discovered the scarf's use in a print ad and reported the allegation in the January 2008 issue. In early March, Göran Olofsson, the son of Gösta Olofsson, and Jacobs settled on the issue through monetary compensation. In 2009, Jacobs launched a shirt, sold at his stores, demanding the legalization of gay marriage. In February 2010, Jacobs sued Ed Hardy for infringing on the designs of one of his embroidered handbags.

In 2006, he started a new line of body splash fragrances in affordable huge 10 oz. bottles which are distributed by Coty. First only being sold in perfume boutiques, they have become more and more popular during the recent years.

PERSONAL LIFE

In 2009, Jacobs was ranked 15th on Out magazine's annual list of "50 Most Powerful Gay Men and Women in America".

Jacobs, who is openly gay, is currently single as of May 2010. Formerly, Jacobs was in a relationship with advertising executive Lorenzo Martone. In March 2009, Women's Wear Daily reported that the pair was engaged after a year of dating. In July 2009, the couple held their wedding in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Although they considered themselves a married couple, their marriage was not legally official until later that year. On July 23, 2010, Jacobs told Vogue.co.uk: "No I am not getting married." And on July 24, Lorenzo announced viaTwitter that he and Jacobs had not been together for two months.

MARC JACOBS

Ha frequentato la High School of Art and Design e si è diplomato nel 1981. Da lì, Jacobs entrò nellaParsons School of Design di New York. Alla Parsons, Jacobs ha vinto il Perry Ellis Thimble Gold Award nel 1984, e nello stesso anno gli è stato anche assegnato il Chester Weinberg Thimble Gold Award e Design Student of the Year Award. Mentre era ancora alla Parsons, Jacobs ha progettato e venduto la sua prima linea di maglieria. Progetta la sua prima collezione per Reuben Thomas. In questo periodo, Jacobs forma il suo partenariato con Robert Duffy, Jacobs Duffy Inc., che continua ancora ai giorni nostri. Nel 1986, sostenuto da Onward Kashiyama Stati Uniti d'America, Inc, Jacobs disegnò la sua prima collezione che porta il marchio di Marc Jacobs. Nel 1987, Jacobs ha ricevuto il distinto onore di essere il più giovane stilista: Il Consiglio di Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Perry Ellis Award per il Nuovo Talento di Moda. Marc Jacobs, Robert Duffy e Perry Ellis hanno aderito nel 1989. Robert come il Presidente e Marc come il Vice-Presidente del design per creare la collezione da donna e in seguito, la progettazione dei vari licenziatari delle donne.

Jacobs è attualmente il direttore artistico per Louis Vuitton, una posizione che assunse nel 1997. Jacobs ha guidato Vuitton in collaborazioni di rilievo come Stephen Sprouse's graffiti borse, Takashi Murakami's color pastello accessori, e il primo prêt-à-porter linea commercializzati con la Louis Vuitton imprimateur (progettato da Jacobs). Le sue linee di abbigliamento, Marc Jacobs e la meno costosa diffusione linea Marc by Marc Jacobs, creata nel 2000, sono estremamente popolari.