These Lips Might Sink Ships...: Marc Jacobs

After last season's Seventies spetacle, Marc Jacobs opted for a more strict, disciplined look for Fall. A more feminine silhouette and shots of Dior's New Look were present, but this wasn't ladylike as we've seen in recent history. It was far more twisted. Along with the severe look of things, Jacobs displayed an infatuation with polka dots, a print that seems so very Marc, appearing on everything from dresses to tights to the Stephen Jones caps. I was reminded of the Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton documentary when he met artist Yayoi Kusama, a small Japanese woman who obsessively creates works covered in polka dots. This meeting lead to the appearance of polka dots in his Spring 2007 collection for Louis Vuitton, but they much less in-your-face. The overwhelming polka dots alongside the latex elements gave off a sense of madness—that is, insanity. The Marilyn Mason soundtrack ("The Beautiful People") and a set that called to mind solitary confinement don't disprove the thought. With that came thoughts of fetishism, but perhaps that's just my muddled mind seeing what it wants to. The fire engine red, mid-calf, lace-up boots on Sigrid Agren lead me to believe I'm not alone in my attention to kink. Nicole Phelps suggested it may be a collection about "self-betterment," the plastic being an obvious piece of evidence. Jones mentioned 1939's The Women in the style.com video. The beauty of Marc's work is that it has the potential to be all of these things. His brain is saturated with information and he's not afraid to mash it all together. This is perhaps the most significant reason for my adoration and infatuation with him. His mind works in such mysterious and absolutely eccentric ways. This collection was a perfect demonstration of Marc's talent, incorporating the beautiful (the lace section), the bizarre (hello wedge mooon boots), and the brilliant (those delightfully obnoxious reflective skirts). It's no wonder that I love him.

Alana Zimmer