As the unofficial kick-start of NYFW, Marc Jacobs dials down the volume for AW26, allowing memories and internal monologues to ring out loud and clear. He revisits his ’90s heyday while openly crediting his own legacy, and the creatives who left their imprint on it, with characteristic candour.

For Autumn/Winter 26, Marc Jacobs is looking backwards. To his memories, and quite literally so. Unofficially kicking-off New York Fashion Week yesterday evening, models strode down the runway in coats worn back to front, buttons skimming the spine, a rear collar rising into a makeshift high neck. In recent seasons, since the brand’s Covid hiatus, the idea of a trench worn in reverse on a Marc Jacobs runway would have signalled camp excess: doll-like proportions, skewed silhouettes, heels that defy human physics. Art and performance, done the Marc way. The kind of piece that stops traffic at Bergdorf, but rarely makes it into the shopping bag.

The designer made it clear: it’s time to leave the shelves and, once again, be part of today’s woman’s wardrobe. Marc Jacobs is back to making clothes that are wearable in real life – and darling, are we thrilled about it.

Titled “Memory Loss”, the house’s irreverent and playful codes were subtly threaded through the collection, as Jacobs took a deliberate trip down memory lane and revisited his heyday. Nothing was left for editors and critics to decipher between the lines. Marc arrived with credits and receipts. Yves Saint Laurent’s 1965 couture show, Perry Ellis SS93 (Jacobs’ own industry breakthrough), Helmut Lang and several of his past collections were name-checked in the show notes. “Who we are, what we create, what we leave behind and what we carry forward,” it read, asking what footprint these memories leave along one’s creative path.

The show was short and sweet in signature Marc Jacobs fashion, lasting less than five minutes and drawing a select group of friends of the house and industry peers to New York’s cavernous Park Avenue Armory. Inside, Björk’s “Jóga” provided the soundtrack as models strode down the runway, minds teleporting to 1997 – the year of the song’s release, and the same year Jacobs took the helm at Louis Vuitton. V-necks, button-downs, low-rise, straight midi skirts, the era’s cool-girl uniform, were everywhere, filtered through subtle Jacobs-isms as proportions skewed ever so slightly off-kilter. Waistbands sat loose enough for models to slip their hands beneath the fabric, yet the construction remained impeccably boxy, styled with sequinned tube tops and satin co-ords.

A week that starts on a high note – and a memory we’re more than happy to carry forward. There’s simply no not loving Marc Jacobs.

Words – Sofia Ferreira
Photography – Giovanni Cardenas