For 40 years, Marc Jacobs has been one of the biggest names in fashion. Even someone who might not follow the fashion industry knows who Marc Jacobs is.
Earlier this year, he kicked off New York Fashion Week a week early by celebrating the 40th anniversary of his namesake brand, with a runway show that had the audience living for the dolls — literally.
The celebratory event, held at the Park Avenue Armory in New York, featured models in outfits inspired by paper dolls from the 1960s.
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In addition to the oversized clothes worn by the models, they also entered the runway from underneath a giant table and chairs that really brought the doll illusion to life.
Not only was his 40th anniversary runway show a paper doll party, but Jacobs also lit up the internet with a viral post showing him hilariously trying — and unsuccessfully — to blow out candles on a cake celebrating the brand’s birthday.
As the cake becomes engulfed in flames, he grabs the iconic Marc Jacobs accessory, “The Tote Bag,” next to him, fleeing the towering inferno.
In addition to gag-worthy fashion shows, and fiery Instagram posts, Jacobs is also celebrating his brand’s anniversary by collaborating with some high profile names like Pharrell Williams, director Sofia Coppola, Takashi Murakami, and Anna Sui, just to name a few, who will each re-imagine their favorite pieces from the Marc Jacobs archive.
The campaign will also feature famous faces like Dakota Fanning, supermodel Lila Moss, musicians FKA twigs, Lil Uzi Vert, and artist Cindy Sherman.
“I can’t believe it is 40 years of Marc Jacobs (the brand, I’m much older). I’m grateful for everyone I have the privilege to work with,” he posted on Instagram back in January, sharing a picture of him and Sofia Coppola. “Time flies when you are having fun.”
Outside of the 40th anniversary of his brand, Jacobs’ personal life has also made headlines in recent years.
In 2015, he met candlemaker and former model Charly Defrancesco, the two were married in 2019, a year after Jacobs proposed to him inside a Chipotle.
“Char, my love, in my darkest and loneliest moment you came into my life like some giant happy baby and made me laugh and smile,” he said in his vows at their wedding ceremony. “In that moment I didn’t feel alone or lonely I felt safe and loved.
Since early days at Perry Ellis to being the creative director at Louis Vuitton from 1997 to 2014, Jacobs has become a household name, one of the few designers that people outside of the fashion industry know.
He is aware of how rare that is, even in this world, radically different from the one he started out in in the 1980s.
“People want newness, and they want it from a new person. I understand that I’m not the 25-year-old who was given this incredible job at Perry Ellis, or who created the grunge collection, or who was the bad boy of the 1990s,” Jacobs told T: The New York Times Style Magazine back in 2020. “I am a 56-year-old man who still has the privilege of doing a collection.”
And for that we should be thanking the fashion gods.
