VisionPlus India

I t wasn't the Scots alone who dared parade around in a skirt with such aplomb that you would think it is a fashion faux pas to not wear one! Marc Jacobs sported one at a red carpet event and posed happily for the shutterbugs that were ready to rip him apart in the media for his choices. But being the eccentric designer that he is, he simply dismissed the skirt as something he felt comfortable in. But his unique style is not the only thing that makes him stand out in a crowd. His style, talent and charisma have had a deep impact on the world of fashion. THE YOUNG DAYS Born in 1963, he lost his father when he was seven and his mother remarried thrice after that which meant a lot of travelling around the state for young Marc and his two siblings. As a teenager, Jacobs started working in the stockroom of a trendy New York clothing boutique, Charivari for free. And while folding sweaters and dressing mannequins, he befriended influential patrons of the fashion industry, including sportswear designer Perry Ellis. In 1980 after a fallout with his parents and decided to move in with his paternal grandmother on the upper west side. And it was she, who introduced Jacobs to the world of knitting. He graduated from the High School of Art and Design in 1981 and soon thereafter took up a summer course on costume-making at Parsons school of design in Paris and later enrolled at the institute full-time. He was awarded Parsons’s ‘Design Student of the Year’ for his senior collection of three op-art sweaters, hand-knit by his grandmother. The oversized trapezoidal pieces also won him His name is synonymous with fashion and all that it stands for. Marc Jacobs is unarguably a fashion legend and a visionary in his own right! the school’s ‘Chester Weinberg’ and ‘Perry Ellis Gold Thimble’ awards. Impressed with his designs, Robert Duffy, executive for Ruben Thomas at that time, roped him in to design a ready-to-wear collection for the company's Sketchbook label. TIES THAT BIND… In April of 1985, Marc charmed the critics with his second collection for Sketchbook and also got included in a New York Times article on hot new designers, which termed his work young and irreverent with a whimsical, childlike grace and a hint of the exuberance of the 1960s. Jacobs and Duffy finally established Marc Jacobs Inc, which was financed by the Canadian manufacturer, John Atkins. While the duo eventually got fired and the firm went bankrupt, it didn't douse their enthusiasm for fashion. 1988 was an eventful year — as Marc became the youngest designer ever to receive the ‘Perry Ellis award for new fashion talent’ from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). Following this, Perry Ellis executives hired Marc as creative director and Duffy as president of the women’s line. His first collection for the brand, with an American-flag theme, debuted to a packed crowd at the Puck building in Manhattan’s Soho district. 21 VISION PLUS INDIA EDITION