Marc Jacobs closes out Fashion Week with an operatic finale
After the aria stopped playing, the models walked in silence
Marc Jacobs closed out New York Fashion Week with an operatic finale, playing the aria from “La Wally” used in the movie “Diva.” And the rest was silence. Literally. The models walked in the cavernous, unadorned Park Avenue Armory with no soundtrack, their every footstep audible.
Jacobs is known for beginning his shows exactly on time, so at 6:01 p.m. on Wednesday, the last few ticket holders were scurrying frantically on their stilettos, heels clacking on the wooden floor to avoid getting caught in the centre of the cavernous space as the models began their journey. This fashion show was waiting for no one.
Like he did in February, Jacobs held his runway show in a spare, undecorated Park Avenue Armory, rendering it utterly unrecognizable from the beginning of the week, when Tom Ford had turned it into a luxe nightclub setting bathed in purple light, with waiters serving vodka cocktails.
Jacobs also had his models walk slowly and deliberately in total silence, playing music only at the finale, when the aria from “Diva” was piped into the space.
But the clothing was anything but spare: Jacobs’ models wore brilliant colours like orange and yellow, and big, bold floral prints. Silhouettes, as he explained in his show notes, were “exaggerated, decadent and exotic” — a result of a vacation over the past few months.
But it was a vacation of the mind only.
“While friends vacationed, we took a holiday in our heads and went somewhere,” he said, adding that the collection had come from a reimagining of previous seasons, “somewhere beyond the urban landscape of New York City.”
The most notable look: turbans. Everyone had them, and they came in all colours — partly inspired, Jacobs said, by Kate Moss, who famously wore a gold one to the Met Gala with Jacobs in 2009.
As they were at Calvin Klein, tassels were definitely a favoured touch for accessories like bags and shoes. Speaking of bags, some were enormous, and some were tiny — part of those exaggerated shapes Jacobs spoke of. Some were fanny packs.
Much-followed models Kendall Jenner and Gigi and Bella Hadid all walked, but the honour of closing the show went to the week’s breakout star, newbie Kaia Gerber — daughter of supermodel Cindy Crawford.
In the audience: Zosia Mamet, Courtney Love and Nicki Minaj, in a revealing black bustier.
“It just seemed super surreal,” Minaj said on her way out. “Everything was next level. Colours! I loved it.”