Fashion Moment of the Decade: Marc Jacobs's Final Louis Vuitton Show

by Hetty Mahlich on 28 December 2019

As 2019 draws to a close, the SHOWstudio team reflect on their personal memories of the 2010s in fashion. Be it unforgettable magazine covers or runway shows that stay vivid in the mind’s eye years after the fact, read on for the fashion moments that shaped our understanding of fashion this decade.

As 2019 draws to a close, the SHOWstudio team reflect on their personal memories of the 2010s in fashion. Be it unforgettable magazine covers or runway shows that stay vivid in the mind’s eye years after the fact, read on for the fashion moments that shaped our understanding of fashion this decade.

Marc Jacobs's helm at Louis Vuitton seems many moons ago, and yet the designer's final outing at the French luxury brand in 2013 remains etched in my mind. A black symphony of 42 looks, at once sombre and melancholic yet utterly joyful, Jacobs's S/S 14 collection for the house was a love letter to showgirls, to showmanship, and unbeknownst to show-goers (although they had their suspicions), it was a parting love letter to Jacobs's time at Louis Vuitton.

A train station clock rang 10am and proceeded to tick backwards as model Edie Campbell opened proceedings naked but for a g-string whilst peacocking in a feathered Stephen Jones head-dress. A nod to the covetable Stephen Sprouse collaborations forged by Jacobs at Vuitton, the artist's graffiti-style handwriting scribbled 'Louis Vuitton' and 'Paris' in an inky blue across Campbell's body. Models padded out after her onto a Mongolian lamb fur carpeted floor as orchestral music played out over beating drums. Dressed in black and wearing various renditions of Jones's regal millinery creations, models walked in a mourning procession, this was a parting farewell. Round the central fountain, up in the lifts, along the hotel corridor and down the double escalators to a horse carousel, models took show-goers back in time to some of Jacobs's most notable show sets from across his Vuitton reign. All at once, the show felt powerful and sexy, modern and joyful. S/S 14 was dedicated 'To the showgirl in all of us', with Jacobs noting Jane Birkin, Sofia Coppola, Catherine Deneuve, Miuccia Prada, Coco Chanel, Cher and Grace Coddington as just a few of his own personal go-to showgirls. This was more about the show and less about the clothes, yet despite this, a cropped miltary-esque jacket encrusted with black crystal beading and paired with low rise bleached jeans is what I remember most clearly. Jacobs's perfect balance of excess and the ordinary- it's helped me to get dressed ever since.

Look 1, Louis Vuitton S/S 14, photograph Fabio Iona all rights Indigitalimages.com
Look 6, Louis Vuitton S/S 14, photograph Fabio Iona all rights Indigitalimages.com

This past September, as Jacobs skipped across the front row at the Park Avenue Armory for his namesake label's S/S 20 womenswear show, I thought of a younger, suited up Jacobs taking what was his final, rather timid bow at Vuitton in Paris. Fast-forward nearly six years to New York. Dressed to the nines in red platform Rick Owens boots, a pink Chanel tweed jacket and blue jeans rolled up to reveal canary yellow socks, Jacobs is serenading the front row with The Mamas & The Papas's 'Dream A Little Dream Of Me'. I can't help feeling that despite some bumps in the road since leaving Louis Vuitton, Jacobs has come up smiling. There's hope for a sparkling decade to come.

Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2014

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