Similar origin stories float around the fashion industry. Stylists whose first clients were high school friends seeking their expertise, designers who learned to sew from family members and whose first commissioned pieces were for their siblings, photographers whose first photoshoot was a field trip shot with their iPhone. There is an easy retelling of how most started in the industry, but so few stories about the before. Before fashion and art became a potential career. Before it became a practice and a craft; an industry that many have nearly broken themselves for. When fashion and design were interlinked with play and imagination. When it was simply naïve fun. For his 40th anniversary, Marc Jacobs released his SS24 collection slightly ahead of schedule, kicking off NYFW with a memento of fashion as nothing more than play. In a school-esque auditorium set with a colossal desk and folding chair sculpture created by Robert Therrien, dolled-up models trotted down the runway in over-structured garments and coiffed bulbed hair. In the show notes, Jacobs explains that the thesis behind this collection entitled Wonder, is one of the remaining awe kept through the lens of time. That in his 40 years of design and creation, there is still naivete, there is still inspiration, there is still wonder.
The show consisted of incredibly spacious waists on sizable trousers that were pinned together in the front to keep them above the hips. The deliberate and taut tailoring of the knit sweaters and tweed coats stiffened the arms of the models as if they themselves were dolls stuffed into inflexible garments. Bulbous shoes evocative of Bratz dolls and high-cut bottoms similar to vintage Barbie attire, Jacobs gives us a living experience of the world we imagined when we were children. Whether you played with paper dolls or you were from the Stardoll dress-up era, this show was wistful and fun. It is impossible for me to look at this line without thinking about the Barbie magnet dress-up game that I used to play with well before I understood what fashion was; sitting in front of the fridge for hours with my sister and two cousins, curating pastel lounge looks or structured silhouettes to glam-up my magnet doll for a night out. Marc Jacobs 40th anniversary gives us the closet of our childhood dreams.
With the rumored return of twee and the noted return of “quiet luxury”, Wonder focused on preppy looks, accented with stockings and mary-janes and complete with hints of nautical, shift dresses and A-line shapes. Hair inspired by the Supremes and Twiggy-heavy eye looks, the sophisticated yet naïve poise of the 1960s era of design made its way into this Marc Jacobs dollhouse. The 60s aesthetic was supplemented with archived Jacobs designs. Pastel-palette Heavn tracksuits and mirrorball dresses. With hair aesthetics pulled from the lustrous Supremes, a juxtaposed debut of Heavn by Marc Jacobs on the runway with homage paid to Japanese design and McBling pieces, the varying aesthetics layered onto a base of childlike structure felt like an ode to Jacobs’ prowess and versatility as a designer. In true Marc Jacobs fashion, ballooning jackets with rounded sleeves (AW21 show), enormous knit sweaters (AW22), folding chairs (AW17), and the return of the Venetia satchel all felt remarkably intimate. With close friends seated in the audience, Marc Jacobs welcomed a new decade for the label.
For many in this industry, our journey began when we first recognized fashion and art as something that could be crafted, as something that could be perfected. There was a time before that when our love for design and styling was a pure un-commercialized expression of a natural inclination for aesthetics. On this 40th anniversary with Jacobs, whether you’ve lived through it all or you’re just beginning your archival research into his iconic contribution to fashion, there couldn’t be a better time to reflect on how we take time within our practices for a childlike type of imagination – a naive sort of creation. Wonder shows us that fashion can and should still make us dream world-building dreams. For his 40th anniversary, Jacobs brings us back to where many of us first fell in love with fashion, design, and creativity.
Hannah Verina White is a Montreal and Toronto based writer. She has a deep love for the melodramatic and nostalgic, both of which influence the way she writes and the subjects she chooses to write about.