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Catwalk Report: Marc Jacobs

By Carla Bevan. Photograph by Mitchell Sams on Tuesday 11 September 2007

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Marc Jacobs

FROM THE MAN who brought us grunge comes next season's alternative trend: granny.

Sticking two fingers up to all the accepted rules of fashion design, Marc Jacobs' latest collection resembled a kids' dressing-up party – after the children had been let loose in their grandmother's wardrobe with a large pair of scissors, that is.

Showing in the Lexington Avenue Armory, the only predictable part to this show was its late start time – two hours behind schedule at 11pm – and the number of A-listers on the front row (Victoria Beckham, Mischa Barton and Sheryl Crowe to name just a few).

Everything else? Well, it seemed to be going backwards. Jacobs ran out to take his applause before we'd even seen any clothes and then the models came out together in finale formation. There was a brief moment when we collectively wondered whether we'd been sitting for two hours for the show to be over in just two minutes, but then they came out again, one by one, giving us time for a proper look at the outfits.

And they certainly needed a proper look.

Walking out in reverse order, with look 56 first, the girls modelled transparent, organza trousers, 'two thirds of a satin gown' (with half the skirt and one strap missing), stoles, beaded dresses, sleeveless trench coats, sequined hoodies, and most bizarrely of all, in a very bizarre collection, patent 'too small' shoes, which looked just agony to walk in.

All the while this mélange of pieces was being paraded, video screens projected the same models walking the same runway, but only in their underwear.

To attempt to quantify this collection would be doing the designer a disservice - was he going backwards in an effort to move fashion forwards? Thankfully, even he seemed a little nonplussed by it all.

'It's cartoon versions of all the women I know - conservative types, vamps, everybody,' was all he would offer by way of explanation.