Marc Jacobs, a designer, has been bringing his bright, creative and bold eye to luxury clothing since the 1980s, from his influence at French and legacy American fashion houses to his work for his label.

About Marc Jacobs

Marc Jacobs, an American fashion designer hailing from New York City, has been in the fashion business for nearly 40 years. He grew up in Manhattan and spent his teens working as a stockboy for Charivari, a boutique that sells avant-garde clothing. Marc graduated from the High School of Art and Design with a degree in 1981. He then enrolled at the Parsons School of Design where he won the Perry Ellis Gold Thimble Award and Design student of the Year award in 1984. Marc Jacobs was founded in 1986 by Robert Duffy, his business partner.

Marc was the youngest ever recipient of the Perry Ellis Award for “New Fashion Talent” in 1987. Jacobs soon joined Perry Ellis’ women’s design division as the creative director. Marc was named creative director at luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton in 1997. He created the first ready-to wear clothing line. Marc Jacobs is his fashion label’s head designer. Marc has been awarded the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), Womenswear Designer of the Year Award five times. He also received the Accessories and Menswear Designer of the Year Awards and was the recipient of the Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011.

Marc Jacobs Brand

Marc Jacobs has been designing for his label since 1984. Since then, the brand has grown into a variety of diffusion lines that cater to a wide range of price points and customer base. Here’s a brief overview of Marc Jacobs.

• Marc Jacobs Collection: Marc Jacobs’ flagship brand. It is Marc Jacobs’ luxury ready-to wear line that includes womenswear and menswear as well as accessories and fragrances. Since 1984, he has been designing for the label.
• Marc by Marc Jacobs: Marc launched Marc’s second line Marc by Marc Jacobs at his spring/summer runway shows in 2001. It offered lower-priced accessories and womenswear with the same quality and creativity as his luxury line. The label was closed in 2015.
• Marc Jacobs Beauty: Marc Jacobs offers a range of skincare products, foundations, eye shadows and lipsticks.
• Marc Jacobs Fragrance: Marc Jacobs Fragrance has popular lines such as Perfect, Violet, and Daisy. It is now owned by COTY but retains the whimsical quality of Marc Jacobs’ flagship label.
• Marc Jacobs Little: Marc’s children’s line applies Marc’s cheeky, colorful design aesthetic to children’s wear.
• Marc Jacobs’ newest diffusion line was launched in 2019. It offers modern clothing as well as reintroductions to popular styles at a lower cost.

Four of Marc Jacobs’ Collaborations with Louis Vuitton

Marc was the creative director of Louis Vuitton from 1997 to 2014. He also created the first ready-to wear clothing line for the company and collaborated with many visual artists to add a modern, creative flair to the French fashion label. Here are four collaborations Marc did during his time at the label.

• Marc Jacobs and Takashi Murakami

Marc collaborated with Takashi Murakami, a popular Japanese illustrator, to make the “LV” monogram signature pattern in brown and taupe a rainbow. Murakami was inspired by manga and anime, with some characters appearing in between the rainbow monogram stamps.

• Marc Jacobs and Stephen Sprouse

Marc Jacobs and Stephen Sprouse, an artist best known for his graffiti-style artwork, collaborated on a collection bags and luxury goods featuring graffiti-style accents to the “LV” monogram pattern. Marc collaborated with Sprouse for the first time in 2001. A second tribute collection was released in 2009.

• Marc Jacobs and Richard Prince

Marc Jacobs collaborated with Richard Prince to create a completely nurse-themed collection for the Louis Vuitton spring/summer 2008 show. Models wore black lace face masks with Prince’s nurse painting and exaggerated nurse bonnets. They also wore sheer, nurse-style shirt dresses.

• Marc Jacobs and Yayoi Kusama

Yayoi Kunsama, a Japanese visual artist, brought her surreal and colorful spotted motifs to the collaboration with Louis Vuitton. Marc created a line of bags and clothing featuring Kusama prints.