Few occasions have shook the style world over the previous few weeks just like the passing of Vivienne Westwood. And so, on the night of February 2, Marc Jacobs staged a last-minute fall 2023 present in New York Metropolis titled “Heroes,” with a Westwood quote prominently featured within the present notes: “Trend is life-enhancing, and I believe it’s a beautiful, beneficiant factor to do for different individuals.”
It’s been three years since Jacobs hosted a runway presentation at his traditional spot, the Park Avenue Armory, however for therefore many causes, he made it well worth the wait. Enter: a visible and sonic feast. Suppose: fashions rising from full darkness into delicate gentle to the tune of violinist Jennifer Koh taking part in Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Seashore. Debbie Harry and Debi Mazar sat entrance row, taking all of it in.
Formally, vogue month hasn’t even began but. However the couture and pre-fall exhibits have proved designers are already placing a significant emphasis on quantity and construction. Jacobs has proven that’s one in all his sturdy fits in spades—piling on the drama for his exhibits which have, lately, shifted from closing the official New York Trend Week calendar to going manner off-schedule. Right here, we noticed his penchant for wacky, virtually absurd-level quantity explored, however with a somewhat utilitarian twist. Parts like suiting and conventional cargo pants, for instance, had been turned on their heads. There have been huge winter coats that by some means appeared each wearable and like an instance of extremely technical shapes, reinvented. Clothes shape-shifted to appear to be different issues totally. Was it a shrug or a little bit jacket wrapped and tied across the shoulders, twisted into an summary kind?
There was an allusion to the thought of taking part in with private area on this assortment. For instance, lots of the fashions walked with their arms crossed, backlit by the dramatic shadowing. It was all sufficient to make one surprise if the garment was constraining the mannequin, or if the mannequin was constraining the garment. The concept of clothes as a defend has been talked about rather a lot within the post-pandemic world, and these creations introduced that concept to thoughts. The shadows solid on one mannequin after the opposite additionally created a dystopian impact, as company had been seated in a single row of folding chairs.
However that didn’t imply the gathering wasn’t with out humor. Take, as an illustration, a fluffy, yellow-pastel costume paired with elbow size, leather-based opera gloves. The mix felt barely off-kilter, a little bit classic and a little bit bizarre—simply what we would anticipate from a Jacobs interpretation of Westwood’s work. Oversize shoulders, huge bows, and brief spiky hair that resembled Westwood’s personal in her early days cemented the gathering as being one which felt enjoyable in its formality. Draped polka dot robes had been topped off with single strands of pearls—one of many many, many inherent Westwood references—together with complicated blouses impressed by Westwood’s 1981 Pirate assortment.
If the present exhibits have something to say about footwear, it’s that terrifyingly teetering heels are the brand new pièce de résistance of any wardrobe. Jacobs had each single mannequin stroll in his infamously towering Kiki boots, which he not too long ago reissued beneath his Heaven line. Westwood, too, cherished a scary-high heel, as seen in her 1993 present, when Naomi Campbell fell within the Tremendous Elevated Gillies heels.
In a world the place vogue collabs really feel so ubiquitous, there’s one thing celebratory and new about one designer trying to one other as a reference level. Jacobs could have a couple of hero, although—as a result of inside this assortment had been items that appeared to additionally pull from different varied vogue legends, together with Rei Kawakubo and past.
