Diana Vreeland called her red living room the garden in hell. For his fall/winter 15 collection, Marc Jacobs recreated the idiosyncratic glamor of Vreeland’s salon, both literally (red walls, painted sofa backdrop), and figuratively (a sense of daring). Backstage after the show, Jacobs spoke about his attraction to the editor’s aesthetic convictions, and that “fierce, addictive, pleasure then pain of being so adamantly passionate and total about embracing something. The allure of it.”
Of course, Allure is the title of one of Vreeland’s most inspiring books, an unusual mishmash of archival images. Marc explains that “Where it really started in my head was reading Vreeland’s Memos and re-reading Allure, the book of images with her captions and quotes and quippy remarks. That put it into context and made sense of a lot of it for me. It helped to draw a thread and to have an approach to the way the clothes were finished and how they were constructed, and to the things we edited and to the things we kept.”
On the runway that translated into a certain confidence and quite a bit of spice. ‘Go big or go home’ was the message implied in a lace dress over bare breasts, Cruella Deville skunk capes, and embellished topcoats over full long skirts. Sequins found their way onto flowered evening gowns, coats and jackets, and as bands across the opening suite of dark day dresses. Knee-high boots and leather gloves finished the looks.
Designers often carry over themes from one season the next, and it’s fairly unusual for one to shift gears quite as radically as Marc has from his spring/summer 15 no-makeup military-inspired collection. He said, “This time the military theme came through with the polish. It had nothing to do with military details or military colors and it wasn’t a pink house. This was a living room inspired by someone whose aesthetics were so completely all-encompassing that just demanded that every single thing be done.” It’s a testament to him that he has created two such radically different collections in the space of a year, without losing his specific Marc-ness.
Vreeland’s fascination for geishas was quite present in the makeup by Francois Nars, composed of pure white skin, intense eyes, and heavily lined lips. 90s super Erin O’Connor opened the show, and wore the extreme top-knot as designed by Guido to perfection. In fact, Marc noticed in a similarity between Erin and this season’s muse while looking at an old Nars book, X-Ray. “She reminded me of Mrs. Vreeland,” he said.While Marc’s protégées Katie and Luella are empowering young girls to DIY their own style at Marc by Marc, this collection showed another way for fashion to transcend the runway. Rather than dictate a look, the idea seemed to be to pick a style, any style, but believe in it. Picking up on D.V.’s commitment to individual flair, might this collection inspire women to go out and concoct their own extravagant looks? As she writes in Allure, “I’m looking for the suggestion…of something I’ve never seen.”
Catch up with the rest of our fall/winter 15 coverage here.
Credits
Text Rory Satran
Photography Mitchell Sams