Marc Jacobs

Marc Jacobs built his career on the friction between everyday clothes and extraordinary desire. Born in New York City in 1963, he graduated from Parsons in 1984 and developed his namesake label with business partner Robert Duffy.

His early hand-knitted sweaters established an interest in clothes with an individual touch. At Perry Ellis, that sensibility became the spring 1993 grunge collection, shown in November 1992, which brought the layered dressing of alternative music into an American sportswear house. The collection helped define his reputation, even as his employment there ended.

Appointed artistic director of Louis Vuitton in 1997, Jacobs helped turn a luggage house into a complete fashion proposition, introducing ready-to-wear for women and men. His tenure expanded the possibilities of the monogram through collaborations with artists including Stephen Sprouse and Takashi Murakami. Menswear developed within that broader transformation, eventually with dedicated design leadership under Paul Helbers and then Kim Jones.

At his own company, Marc by Marc Jacobs, introduced at the beginning of the 2000s, extended his sensibility into a more accessible wardrobe. The CFDA named Jacobs Menswear Designer of the Year in 2002. The men’s collections developed under his creative direction explored the gap between respectability and rebellion, with tailoring that left room for eccentricity.

Dedicated menswear designers helped give that wardrobe its character. By 2013, Karl Åberg and Daniel Salmon were handling Marc by Marc Jacobs menswear, while Åberg also designed the mainline’s men’s collections. The label’s fall-winter 2015 menswear collection revisited grunge through elongated layers and slouchy pleated trousers. Formal clothes could accommodate the person who remained suspicious of formality.

Jacobs left Louis Vuitton in 2013 to concentrate on his own company. His separate namesake men’s line ended after fall-winter 2017, though men’s clothing would continue as a smaller part of the broader brand.

Heaven, launched in 2020 with creative collaborator Ava Nirui, opened his world to another generation through clothing shaped by alternative film and music. The Marc Jacobs label also continued to offer men’s clothing through collections and capsules, including Monogram in 2022 and subsequent M-Archives and Futura releases.

Jacobs’ own wardrobe offers a more personal expression of that freedom, making skirts and elaborate manicures part of a highly public approach to getting dressed. Across his womenswear and his contribution to menswear, Jacobs treats fashion as a means of building a character, with enough room for that character to change.