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THE Marc Jacobs show is traditionally the biggest scrum of New York Fashion Week, a high-voltage affair that draws stellar front rows and all-round superlatives.
But the voltage was turned right down this season - literally, as the show itself took place in virtual darkness, each look trailed only by a meagre spotlight.
More pictures: Marc Jacobs catwalk show at New York Fashion Week
Never have the paparazzi been so disappointed - for if there were any celebrities present, it was too dark to see them.
The designer who once infamously kept guests waiting for two hours started bang on time, so promptly that the unthinkable - a scattering of empty seats - blighted the front row.
No lavish stage sets this time: the models walked on carpet, fast, as though anxious to get back to their rice cakes as quickly as their conical heels could carry them.
In a move that will not please his cabal of uptown fans, Jacobs turned his back on the languorous elegance he explored last season in favour of every Park Avenue princess's nightmare decade - the Eighties.
The models had tinder-dry hair, either crimped, quiffed or backcombed into a messy beehive, and stalked the catwalk with kohl-rimmed eyes, metallic blue lips and the pallor of Siouxsie Sioux after a long night at the 100 Club.
Still, if you skipped over the printed leggings, the lace bodystockings and the drab grey cardigans, there were some interesting new shapes.
Most radical was the wide-shouldered jacket, which appeared in black satin and in a gold jacquard. Trousers were jodhpur-shaped, recast in teal or purple silk. Dresses came with sweetheart necklines and puffed-out skirts, in sweetie pink, canary yellow or black. Everything came either with thigh boots or the ubiquitous ankle boot, some with funny little turned-up toes.
It has long been a trick of Jacobs to cast a gimlet eye over street fashions past and present, reworking them in deluxe fabrics and repackaging them for a moneyed clientele. This collection was more of the same: posh punk, if you like, using cashmere, velvet, Swiss lace and shaved mink instead of the cheap, improvised cloth from which the original punk was cut. Whether women will want to spend $2,000 on souped-up Carnaby Street chic, only time will tell, but with the Jacobs label attached, you wouldn't bet against it.
Reader views (2)
Yup have to agree about the Victoria Beckham comment. I kept waiting...waiting....waiting...for something interesting to pop up but just the same plain shapes in different colors.
Jacobs is a genius...he has to be, we have the same first name.
- Marc, Long Beach, USA, 20/02/2009 22:40
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Marc Jacobs collection is absolutely stunning.A wonderful designer whose use of colour is magical.How Victoria Beckham can even show her bland, boring,cloned collection and call herself a designer I don't know. Just goes to show if you've got pots and pots of money and nothing else to do with your life you can become a 'famous' fashion designer, artist or writer overnight!
- Laura, Epsom,Surrey UK, 18/02/2009 15:22
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