‘Courage’ Marc Jacobs Spring 2025
“Courage:” The title Marc Jacobs assigned to the collection he showed on Monday night at the New York Public Library. In its gutsy proportions and oppositional overstatements – elegant and out-there; rigorous and wild – it was indeed courageous.
Of course, not all courage is equal. There’s NY fashion designer courage and LA firefighter courage. Jacobs is a smart, emotionally sophisticated man who knows the difference. He knows, too, that the extraordinary, selfless bravery of one does not negate the legitimacy of the other. Although he didn’t talk with the press post-show (sadly, those sessions now seem firmly in his past), he did supply his guests with a powerful printed statement of what courage means in the context of his life’s work. It merits a full read:
“Guided by heart, humility and gratitude, I have come to understand that fear is not my enemy – it is a necessary companion to creativity, authenticity, integrity, and life. With precious freedom, we dream and imagine without limitation, daring to be vulnerable in the face of criticism and failure, not to escape from reality but to help navigate, understand and confront it – exploring through curiosity, conviction, compassion, and love.”
For Spring (buy now/wear now), Jacobs employed that freedom boldly. He believes deeply in the power of fashion to stir emotion, provoke thought, touch the heart, mind and soul. It can satiate the designer’s creative impulses and distract from (temporarily at least) the wearer’s disillusionment at the world’s plentiful ills. Jacobs’ lineup did all of the above. He started with a familiar exercise, the manipulation of outsized proportions he first explored a year ago. Whereas that collection had an almost child-like quality (shown under a giant folding table and chairs to drive home the point), here he took a more deliberately haute turn. He rendered this via precise complicated constructions punctuated with audacious sculptural footwear – high boots, the toes curving upward in huge, dangerous hooks; pumps with toes extending flat on the floor for several inches, and others with the toe box reimagined as a giant, shining orb.
For the clothes, Jacobs imposed his indifference to convention upon his old-school (read: remarkable) skill set, having his way with numerous recognizable tropes. His take on “quiet luxury” drowned out any element of the mundane that can lurk in chic sweater- and-pants looks, shaping his wide trousers with sharply angled darts. Bubble silhouettes and padding spun multiple decades of references (Forties, Fifties, Sixties) variously cozy, couture, cartoon, and in one case, Comme – a red sequined nod to Rei Kawakubo’s famous “The future is two-dimensional” show for Fall 2012.
About that bright spot, Jacobs’ use of color was sublime, with ample shots of vibrance – red, purple, pink, turquoise – jolting a mostly neutral range. If a collection can be joyful and unnerving, this one was. Fear may be Jacobs’ necessary companion, but for now, he became its master.
