Marc Jacobs is making history.
The 56-year-old designer will be the inaugural recipient of MTV’s Fashion Trailblazer Award at the upcoming Video Music Awards as a partnership between the television council and the CFDA, the network announced Tuesday. The show is set to take place on August 26 in Newark, New Jersey.
Over the course of his 30-plus-year career, Jacobs has both heavily influenced and been influenced by music, most notably creating a grunge-inspired collection for Perry Ellis in 1993, which famously got him fired and which he reissued in 2018 because the pieces are still so beloved.
Around the time he was let go from the preppy fashion house, the creative director also dressed Sonic Youth for their music video “Sugar Kane” and created outfits for a “House of Style” commercial, MTV’s ’90s fashion show.
“At that time, there was also a shift in fashion photography, which was very inspired by Larry Clark, with no glamour and no frills and no fancy lighting, just cool kids going out with a camera, taking pictures of other cool kids wearing clothes,” Jacobs told Vogue of the musical inspiration behind that infamous Perry Ellis collection.
“I think the alternative or indie and grunge scene was happening, and then there was also something going on in the modeling world, which of course I was very attached to and aware of. There was this new, maybe just under-the-radar way of looking at people or young people whose beauty was not conventional. It was a combination of all those things, and I really authentically felt something different was happening and something new was happening. It was also seductive, and I couldn’t resist any part of it.”
The fashion award announcement comes after Page Six exclusively revealed that MTV is considering cutting Michael Jackson’s name out of its Video Vanguard Award, which has previously been given to stars including Jennifer Lopez and Rihanna. “There’s talk about if they should change the name, or get rid of it altogether. [There’s also talk] about who would present it and who would accept it. It’s a mess,” a source told Page Six.