Jan.

24

Marc Jacobs + Louis Vuitton

Is it me, or does every fashion season somehow revolve around super designer Marc Jacobs? By all indications, the buzz come February will be about his upcoming exhibition at the Les Art Décoratifs in Paris. The exhibition is actually a retrospective of Marc’s 15-year career at Louis Vuitton and is scheduled to open on March 9th. Louis Vuitton + Marc Jacobs is curated by Pamela Golbin, a fashion historian and respected curator at the Louvre who also organized major retrospectives for Balenciaga, Valentino and Vionnet. With Ms. Golbin overseeing the archives and presentation, I’m sure Louis Vuitton + Marc Jacobs will be one of the must-see fashion exhibitions of the year.

Under Marc’s creative eye and to his credit, the popularity of Louis Vuitton has soared and his team has successfully re-imagined the legendary brand and made it more contemporary with edgy collaborations with artists like Stephen Sprouse and Takashi Murakami who understand that the Louis Vuitton woman appreciates the avant garde and wants to be seen.

I’ve featured Marc’s namesake label on Zavvi Rodaine, but I’ve never profiled him or his admirable work at Louis Vuitton. I see Marc’s handiwork everywhere–from the inner city beauty salons to teenage girls at the mall to beaches in the Bahamas, but how much do we really know about the man behind the brand? So, I did a bit of sleuthing and came up with a few fun facts about Marc that you may or may not know to accompany some of my favorite vintage Louis Vuitton ad campaigns through the years. Enjoy!

Marc learned to knit from his grandmother and he designed sweaters for his first collection.

Marc’s fashion “hero” is none other than legendary French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.

Marc was once intimidated by the art world, but now he and his Vuitton team embrace art and have succesfully married fashion and art to create some stunning ad campaigns.

Marc considers his job at Louis Vuitton as his alter ego—a more overt, glossy personality and feels creating at Vuitton is “like being in a movie, like it’s not real.”