Photo: Courtesy of Dazed Digital.
At 25-years-old, Marc Jacobs was “always trying to please other people – I thought that was my job.” But, he soon came to realise that following orders didn’t work: “I found that that didn’t really make me very happy, it just made me busy!” 25 years later, at 50, Jacobs has truly stopped trying to please others – his 16-year tenure at Louis Vuitton has finished, and he’s going it alone. Which should be a walk in the park for this pro, right? Apparently not. It seems that even MJ suffers from a little peer pressure. Last week, the designer sat down with his friend and architect, Peter Marino, at the Tate Modern for a revealing discussion that covered his future, past, and present. “I’m a little scared,” he admitted, “I mean it wouldn’t be me if I sat here and pretended to be super confident about everything. There’s a kind of healthy fear that I have — it’s how I operate. On a good day, I believe it’s going to be amazing, and on a bad day, I think I need that other place to hide.”
Dazed Digital transcribed parts of their conversation, in which Jacobs admitted that leaving Louis Vuitton was both a blessing and a curse, and that the appointment of Nicolas Ghesquière has brought on mixed feelings. “I’ve always admired Nicolas. You know, I’m curious to see what he’ll do. I mean, we have such different aesthetics. I guess I’ve gone through ups and downs about it, but the thing is, before me, there was no ready-to-wear…I was the first clothing designer there.”
Jacobs also discussed his design inspirations, saying that they will remain, as always, “contemporary art, music, and pop culture.” Asked about his plans for the present, the ever-positive MJ replied: “I don’t know what the future will be and I’m just sort of like let’s see, let’s see how it goes.” So far, so good... (Dazed Digital)