For its Pre-Fall 2018 collection, Marc Jacobs dabbles in the themes surrounding grunge, vintage American icons and love.
Grunge was a career-defining moment for Marc Jacobs. Back in the 90s, the iconic anti-fashion which pride itself with its irreverence and lack of regard for commonplace ‘fashion rules’ inspired the edgy and youth-minded Marc Jacobs to design a collection of offbeat plaid shirts and dingy torn dresses for Perry Ellis’ S/S’ 1993 collection. That collection itself famously cost Jacobs his job, but the designer remained unfazed and remembers it fondly as his “favourite collection”.
Tapping into the cultural zeitgeist of the grunge movement once again, Marc Jacobs developed the Pre-Fall ‘18 collection for the everyday person. Plaid shirts delivered in an electric colour palette of red, bright yellow and turquoise, zip up hoodies and chunky rubber soled boots paid homage to the liberation of the gritty anti-music and fashion attitude. T-shirts and hoodies feature distressed prints while the brand’s iconic use of denim is seen here with an acid-washed treatment.
Jacobs also explored other classic American themes with logos of Disney, Coca Cola and Playboy that can be seen plastered throughout the ready-to-wear collection.
Following the original Love theme created for the Spring 2018 “Somewhere” collection, Marc Jacobs brought back motifs of the font “Love” and stamped it on platform sneakers and backpacks.
The true standouts of the collection are the new styles of bags.
Marc Jacobs’ signature Snapshot bag, the dinky crossbody camera bag that features the Double J emblem, is revamped this season with new multi-coloured webbing straps that are detachable.
The collection also sees the debut of the new ‘Pack Shot’, a backpack that features the iconic Double J emblem in gold hardware and webbing straps with whimsical Playboy Bunny motifs or plaid prints. This colourblock bag has two zip compartments with complementary colour leather knot zip pulls and an exterior slip compartment.
Marc Jacobs takes his cue from the trending belt bags of the season and presents to us the new ‘Hip Shot’ — a versatile bag with a similar silhouette to the Snapshot that can be worn in four different ways: as a belt bag around the waist, diagonally across the chest, as a clutch by removing the strap or as a crossbody with a detachable metal chain.
Now, things are really starting to sound exciting for pre-fall.
