Show Report
Marc Jacobs' diffusion range is more about latching onto trends already in the fashion pipeline, giving them a Jacobs twist.
Rather than setting trends (as with his eponymous, boundary-pushing mainline), Marc Jacobs' diffusion range is more about latching onto trends already in the fashion pipeline, giving them a Jacobs twist, and trotting them out to a receptive audience of store buyers. Hence, at a good Marc by Marc show the outfits he sends out always look like something the twentysomething (and under) models may have been style-snapped sporting while entering or exiting the building, rather than a runway look. For Autumn/Winter 2010 Jacobs was feeling military, interpreting the army surplus look that began to emerge at the tail-end of last season and came back with a vengeance at January's menswear. Jacobs' reinterpretation was fairly straight-up - cue felted wool striped like army blankets in olive and red, the same shades fashioned into hefty ribbon-bound melton coats and roomy cavalry-twill cargo trousers. The all-important bags were webbing-strapped satchel in battered leather, and the footwear hefty leather combat boots with thick straps, or highly-polished patent brogues destined for the officer's mess. A hefty dose of tartan wove its way through - Black Watch fashioned into almost-too-classic flannel shirts, Royal Stuart pepping up short prom frocks, while Buchanan Dress emerged as a kooky knickerbocker suit in a typical touch of Jacobs perversity. The final section, of almost-staid black and white evening dress, was however a little bit straight-laced for this fun-loving label. Indeed, closing with a clutch of basic black frocks, you wondered if it was really runway-worthy - it was all perfectly pretty, but a smaller venue and one of those intimate presentations would have done justice to the cutesy black-on-black details peppering those last looks, nod indeed the collection as a whole. As it was, these pieces were slightly overawed not only by the overarching demands of the venue, but perhaps the expectations that come with simply having the Jacobs name sewn inside.
