Marc Jacobs Takes Final Bow for Louis Vuitton @ Paris Fashion Week

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| 3 October 2013

The headline of the day was dominated by news that Marc Jacobs was presenting his final fashion show as Creative Director of Louis Vuitton, the French luxury behemoth with which he had helmed the last 16 years. The 50 year old was the first fashion designer to create clothing under the Louis Vuitton brand. Installed as designer in 1997, following the high-profile appointments of Alexander McQueen at Givenchy and John Galliano at Dior, Jacobs outlasted both.

created a set that combined elements from his past shows. There on the runway was a fountain, a carousel, old-fashioned elevators, a hallway of hotel room doors and a set of escalators. These elements created the mise en scene for the designer’s final bow at Louis Vuitton after sixteen years.

During his tenure at the French house — a house only previously known for their luggage and trunks — he made Louis Vuitton a hot name in fashion. He made it one of the most desirable brands in the world.

He helped spark the trend for logomania, splashing the LV monogram and flowers on everything from bags to scarves to fur. He spearheaded the melding of the worlds of art and fashion via collaborations with artists like Stephen Sprouse, Takashi Murakami and Richard Prince.

Season after season, he created bags that were lusted after as soon as they hit the runway. He recreated the LV monogram in all sorts of materials and shapes. He designed clothes that encompassed a breadth of style — heavy and layered one season and light and fluffy as a cotton candy the next. His collections have been inspired by Asia, train travels, tribal themes, pop art, military motifs and Hitchcok heroines.

He even made a bag for his muse the director Sofia Coppola which became an instant hit.

The American's final collection for the Spring/Summer 2014 season consisted mostly of blacks, with beautiful pieces, from the cropped pea coats, some embellished with saucer-sized jet jewels and worn with blue denim boyfriend jeans, to the long, asymmetric hemmed tunic dresses and pencil skirts with their ruffled trains.

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