Marc Jacobs in his new office, January 1989. (Rose Hartman)
Gallery of Marc Jacobs
1990
Marc Jacobs (Photo by Ron Galella)
Gallery of Marc Jacobs
1998
New York City, NY, USA
Steven Meisel, English model Naomi Campbell, and American fashion designer Marc Jacobs at the Louis Vuitton store opening in New York City, circa 1998. (Photo by Rose Hartman)
Gallery of Marc Jacobs
2006
2 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10010, United States
Winona Ryder and Marc Jacobs, designer at the Gramercy Hotel in New York City, New York (Photo by Jamie McCarthy)
Gallery of Marc Jacobs
2013
557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012, United States
Marc Jacobs makes a personal appearance at Sephora Soho on September 3, 2013, in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris)
Gallery of Marc Jacobs
2015
711 12th Ave, New York, NY 10019, United States
Marc Jacobs attends the Marc By Marc Jacobs fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Fall 2015 at Pier 94 on February 17, 2015, in New York City. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz)
Gallery of Marc Jacobs
2016
643 Park Ave, New York, NY 10065, United States
Lady Gaga poses backstage with Designer Marc Jacobs at Marc Jacobs Fall 2016 fashion show during New York Fashion Week at Park Avenue Armory on February 18, 2016, in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy)
Gallery of Marc Jacobs
2016
643 Park Ave, New York, NY 10065, United States
Marc Jacobs walks the runway wearing Marc Jacobs Fall 2016 during New York Fashion Week at Park Avenue Armory on February 18, 2016, in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris)
Gallery of Marc Jacobs
2016
1180 Seven Seas Drive, Orlando, FL 32836, United States
Marc Jacobs (L) and model Naomi Campbell attend as Marc Jacobs & Benedikt Taschen celebrate NAOMI at The Diamond Horseshoe on April 7, 2016, in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy)
Gallery of Marc Jacobs
2016
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Marc Jacobs attends at 2016 amfAR Inspiration Gala Sao Paulo on April 15, 2016, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Photo by Fernanda Calfat)
Gallery of Marc Jacobs
2016
17 Berkeley St, Mayfair, London W1J 8EA, United Kingdom
Charly DeFrancesco (L) and Marc Jacobs attend the Marc Jacobs Beauty dinner at the Club at Park Chinois on February 20, 2016, in London, England. (Photo by David M. Benett)
Gallery of Marc Jacobs
2017
643 Park Ave, New York, NY 10065, United States
Marc Jacobs walks the runway for the Marc Jacobs Fall 2017 Show at Park Avenue Armory on February 16, 2017, in New York City. (Photo by Slaven Vlasic)
Gallery of Marc Jacobs
2017
643 Park Ave, New York, NY 10065, United States
Marc Jacobs at the end of his Fall 2017 Marc Jacobs Runway show February 2017 during New York Fashion Week: The Shows on February 16, 2017, in New York City. (Photo by Randy Brooke)
Gallery of Marc Jacobs
2017
Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023, United States
Marc Jacobs attends the 2017 American Ballet Theatre Fall Gala at David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center on October 18, 2017, in New York City. (Photo by Jim Spellman)
Gallery of Marc Jacobs
2017
11 W 53rd St, New York, NY 10019, United States
Marc Jacobs attends the 2017 WSJ Innovator Awards at the Museum of Modern Art on November 1, 2017, in New York City. (Photo by Taylor Hill)
Gallery of Marc Jacobs
2018
299 South St, New York, NY 10002, United States
Marc Jacobs attends the Moschino x H&M show at Pier 36 on October 24, 2018, in New York City. (Photo by Jim Spellman)
Gallery of Marc Jacobs
2018
55 Wall St a, New York, NY 10005, United States
Marc Jacobs attends the 2018 FGI Night Of Stars Gala at Cipriani Wall Street on October 25, 2018, in New York City. (Photo by Randy Brooke)
Gallery of Marc Jacobs
2019
99 E 52nd St, New York, NY 10022, United States
Char DeFrancesco (L) and Marc Jacobs arrive at their wedding reception at The Grill in Midtown on April 06, 2019, in New York City. (Photo by Gotham)
Gallery of Marc Jacobs
2019
SoHo, New York City, NY, USA
Char Defrancesco and Marc Jacobs are seen in SoHo on April 07, 2019, in New York City. (Photo by Gotham)
Gallery of Marc Jacobs
2019
SoHo, New York City, NY, USA
Marc Jacobs attends THE Marc Jacobs SoHo Block Party at The Marc Jacobs SoHo Store on June 12, 2019, in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris)
Gallery of Marc Jacobs
2019
1356 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, United States
Marc Jacobs attends Love Ball III at Gotham Hall on June 25, 2019, in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy)
Gallery of Marc Jacobs
2019
25 Lafayette St, Newark, NJ 07102, United States
Marc Jacobs attends the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards at Prudential Center on August 26, 2019, in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil)
Gallery of Marc Jacobs
2019
25 Lafayette St, Newark, NJ 07102, United States
Charly Defrancesco and Marc Jacobs attend the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards at Prudential Center on August 26, 2019, in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz)
Gallery of Marc Jacobs
2019
643 Park Ave, New York, NY 10065, United States
Marc Jacobs greets everyone from the runway after his Marc Jacobs Spring 2020 Runway Show at Park Avenue Armory on September 11, 2019, in New York City. (Photo by Randy Brooke)
Achievements
Membership
Awards
Council of Fashion Designers of America
2016
311 W 34th St, New York, NY 10001, United States
Marc Jacobs accepts The Award for Womenswear Designer of The Year at the 2016 CFDA Fashion Awards at the Hammerstein Ballroom on June 6, 2016, in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo)
Steven Meisel, English model Naomi Campbell, and American fashion designer Marc Jacobs at the Louis Vuitton store opening in New York City, circa 1998. (Photo by Rose Hartman)
Marc Jacobs attends the Marc By Marc Jacobs fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Fall 2015 at Pier 94 on February 17, 2015, in New York City. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz)
Lady Gaga poses backstage with Designer Marc Jacobs at Marc Jacobs Fall 2016 fashion show during New York Fashion Week at Park Avenue Armory on February 18, 2016, in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy)
Marc Jacobs walks the runway wearing Marc Jacobs Fall 2016 during New York Fashion Week at Park Avenue Armory on February 18, 2016, in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris)
1180 Seven Seas Drive, Orlando, FL 32836, United States
Marc Jacobs (L) and model Naomi Campbell attend as Marc Jacobs & Benedikt Taschen celebrate NAOMI at The Diamond Horseshoe on April 7, 2016, in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy)
Marc Jacobs accepts The Award for Womenswear Designer of The Year at the 2016 CFDA Fashion Awards at the Hammerstein Ballroom on June 6, 2016, in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo)
17 Berkeley St, Mayfair, London W1J 8EA, United Kingdom
Charly DeFrancesco (L) and Marc Jacobs attend the Marc Jacobs Beauty dinner at the Club at Park Chinois on February 20, 2016, in London, England. (Photo by David M. Benett)
Marc Jacobs at the end of his Fall 2017 Marc Jacobs Runway show February 2017 during New York Fashion Week: The Shows on February 16, 2017, in New York City. (Photo by Randy Brooke)
Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023, United States
Marc Jacobs attends the 2017 American Ballet Theatre Fall Gala at David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center on October 18, 2017, in New York City. (Photo by Jim Spellman)
Charly Defrancesco and Marc Jacobs attend the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards at Prudential Center on August 26, 2019, in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz)
Marc Jacobs greets everyone from the runway after his Marc Jacobs Spring 2020 Runway Show at Park Avenue Armory on September 11, 2019, in New York City. (Photo by Randy Brooke)
Marc Jacobs is an American businessman and fashion designer. He was a creative director for Louis Vuitton from 1997 to 2014. Jacobs started his own labels, Marc Jacobs and Marc by Marc Jacobs, and he continues to be a powerhouse in the fashion world. He is renowned for his sartorial interpretations of trends in popular culture, perhaps most notably his "grunge" collection, which was credited with launching the grunge look of the 1990s.
Background
Marc Jacobs was born on April 9, 1963, in New York City, New York, the United States. His parents worked at the William Morris Agency in New York, but Marc’s father died when he was 7. His mother Judy, who remarried twice, suffered from mental illness.
According to Jacobs, his mother responded poorly to his father's death, embarking on a life of power dating and failed marriages that caused serious upheaval in the family. With each remarriage, Jacobs and his siblings would be forced to relocate to a new home, bouncing from New Jersey to Long Island and then the Bronx.
Education
Marc was in his teens when he went to live with his fashionable grandmother Helen on the Upper West Side, while his siblings, Julie and Paul, went into foster care in New Jersey. It was while living with his grandmother that Jacobs truly felt at home; well-traveled and educated, her love of aesthetically beautiful things and her appreciation for Jacobs' creative designs helped the grandmother and grandson forge a close relationship.
Jacobs' grandmother also allowed Jacobs to enjoy permissive adolescence full of self-exploration. By age 15, he had enrolled in the High School of Art and Design and was working at the upscale clothing boutique Charivari, where he met the fashion designer Perry Ellis, who became his mentor. In 1981 Jacobs graduated from the High School of Art and Design and moved on to study at Parsons School of Design.
In 1984 at Parsons, Marc Jacobs was given the Chester Weinberg Gold Thimble Award, Perry Ellis Gold Thimble Award, and Design Student of the Year Award. For his graduation project, he designed a collection of oversized hand-knit sweaters, which earned him some of the school’s highest honors. He subsequently sold the collection to Charivari.
In 1984 Jacobs was hired by the clothing manufacturer Reuben Thomas, Inc., for which he designed the Sketchbook label (1984-1985). In the same year, with company executive Robert Duffy, he launched Jacobs Duffy Designs Inc. Jacobs thereafter secured the financial backing to design under his own label (1986-1988), for which he became the youngest designer to win the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Perry Ellis Award for New Fashion Talent, one of the industry’s highest honors.
In 1988 Jacobs was named vice president of women’s design at Perry Ellis, where he gained international recognition for his revolutionary "grunge" collection, which he debuted in 1992. Inspired by the emerging grunge music scene, the collection featured unorthodox combinations - such as flowered girlish dresses paired with combat boots - to achieve a disheveled and individualistic look.
The designs were shown by waifish models, including Kate Moss - the antithesis to the glamorous and curvaceous models then in vogue. Jacobs was christened the "guru of grunge" by Women’s Wear Daily and named CFDA Womenswear Designer of the Year (1992) largely because of the monumental collection, which ushered in the grunge look of the 1990s.
With financial backing from his former bosses, he started his own company with longtime business partner Robert Duffy. The Marc Jacobs label soon proved a success, creating a few independent collections, before selling 96 percent of the shareholding to LVMH in 1997. The sale coincided with Jacobs' appointment as Louis Vuitton's artistic director.
In 1997, Jacobs was named creative director of the Louis Vuitton house of luxury goods in Paris. The job was a professional triumph, but it brought new pressures that threw Jacobs's personal life into a tailspin. He began a period of heavy drug use, with near-nightly binges of cocaine, heroin, and alcohol. Friends, including model Naomi Campbell and Vogue editor Anna Wintour, persuaded Jacobs to seek help. He checked into rehab in 1999.
After getting clean, Jacobs threw himself back into his work, launching Louis Vuitton's first ready-to-wear line while expanding his own label. His three Marc Jacobs collections - two for adults and one for children - are sold at dozens of Marc Jacobs boutiques worldwide. He has also licensed his name to perfumes and accessories.
In 2001 a diffusion line, Marc by Marc Jacobs was introduced with a spring runway show. In 2003 he worked with the Japanese visual artist Takashi Murakami to produce the critically acclaimed Louis Vuitton Eye Love Monogram collection, which replaced the brand’s traditional beige-and-brown monogrammed canvas with a multicolored palette featuring pop-art graphics, such as cartoon eyes.
In 2004 a shop selling both brands was opened in Boston and a year later three new shops were opened in Los Angeles. In 2006, a shop was opened in Paris followed by another opened in London in 2007. The same year a new line for children named Little Marc Jacobs was launched.
Also in 2007, the company started an eyewear range as well as releasing the first fragrance, Daisy. This followed by more shops opening in London, Savannah, Georgia, Tokyo, and Moscow. In 2008 more locations were again opened worldwide with the Chicago boutique offering several limited edition fragrances.
The company currently has ranges including Marc Jacobs Collection ready-to-wear, male and female, Marc by Marc Jacobs male and female, two shoe collections, two eyewear and two sunglass collections, one collection of watches, nice fragrances, and a children’s line. Marc Jacobs personally has gone onto winning seven CFDA awards. In 2013 Jacobs announced his departure from Louis Vuitton after a sixteen-year tenure, confirming previous rumors that he was leaving to focus fully on his eponymous brand.
That year he launched the makeup brand Marc Jacobs Beauty. However, his fashion empire subsequently struggled. In 2015 he closed the popular Marc by Marc Jacobs, though lower-priced attire was added to his signature collection. In addition, a number of his retail stores were closed amid layoffs and upper management turnover.
Jacobs has been very vocal about where he stands politically throughout Trump's campaign, even vowing that he will never dress First Lady Melania Trump in his designs. He was one of the designers that created T-shirts for 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Views
Jacobs, along with business partner Robert Duffy, has been involved with over 100 charities worldwide. His protect The Skin You’re In T-shirts were some of his most popular charity pieces, and helped raise awareness about melanoma. They saw fashion icons the likes of Victoria Beckham, Chloë Sevigny, and Cara Delevingne bare all for the cameras.
Quotations:
"I always find beauty in things that are odd and imperfect - they are much more interesting."
"Clothes mean nothing until someone lives in them."
"My opinion about myself is so based on what other people think of me."
"To me, beauty and makeup and color is like the finishing touch on everything."
"Real fashion is something you don't need - it's something you want."
Personality
Marc has a consistent morning ritual. He wakes up at 7 a.m.; then shower, shave, eat breakfast, and have a double espresso, a cigarette, vitamins, and supplements. He wears a kilt with a black or white shirt every day. Cigarettes are one of his vices. He consumes two packs of cigarettes a day.
Interests
Politicians
Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton
Writers
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Artists
Scott Campbell, Elizabeth Peyton, John Currin
Music & Bands
Prince, Miley Cyrus, Lil Kim
Connections
In January 2010, Marc Jacobs married boyfriend Lorenzo Martone, a Brazilian PR executive, at a friend's home in St. Barts in the French West Indies. The pair were named MarLo by tabloid writers. Even after their break up in early 2010, they managed to remain friends.
Marc dated an adult film actor from Brazil, Harry Louis, for a while. Harry also runs a chocolate-making business in London. Harry confirmed their split in 2013 on an Instagram post. Marc and Charly Defrancesco started dating in 2015. They were married in a lavish wedding held in New York City on April 7, 2019.
Lifetime Achievement Award - 2011
Womenswear Designer of the Year - 2010, 2016
Accessory Designer of the Year - 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2005
Womenswear Designer of the Year -1991, 1992, 1997
Lifetime Achievement Award - 2011
Womenswear Designer of the Year - 2010, 2016
Accessory Designer of the Year - 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2005