Marc Jacobs Kicks Off NYFW With a Bang

Fashion Week doesn’t officially start until Wednesday, but Marc Jacobs kicked things off a little early with a stunning and restrained collection dedicated to his recently deceased friend, “Louis.”

“Memory. Loss. Surfacing on their own, memories shape, influence, and inform,” read Jacobs’ show notes. “Free from nostalgia, recovering the past also reminds us that loss is inevitable and that hope is work. Memories, both bittersweet and beautiful, are a faculty of purpose influencing current and future actions — who we are, what we create, what we leave behind and what we carry forward. We allow our senses and instincts to guide up, respecting the appearance of these thoughts by preserving them.”

The collection feels like a radical departure form the ballooning silhouettes and baroque glamour that have marked Jacobs’ recent collections. Every time you think he’s going to zig, he zags.

The notes to Jacobs’ show also included a list of the designers and collections who inspired him: Yves Saint Laurent Couture 1965, Perry Ellis Spring/Summer 1993 (the grunge collection he designed, which got him fired, but also turned him into a star), X-Girl 1994, Stüssy, Marc Jacobs Fall/Winter 1995, Helmut Lang Fall/Winter 1995, Prada Spring/Summer 1996, Marc Jacobs Spring/Summer 1998, Marc by Marc Jacobs Sprin/Summer 2003, Marc Jacobs Spring/Summer 2013, @ellen123ludlow. and Marc by Sofia (a reference to his many collaborations with his friend, filmmaker Sofia Coppola).

All designers borrow from the past, but few are confident enough to list the sources of their particular inspirations so nakedly. But, then, Jacobs is a master and (we hope) he knows it. He has nothing to prove and absolutely nothing to fear.

And now, because there’s no such thing as too much Marc Jacobs, here are some of our favorite pics from backstage and front row