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Inside Paris Fashion—Marc Jacobs - French fashion designer - Brief Article - Interview
Interview, Oct, 2001
INGRID SISCHY: So Marc, when you were growing up, did you have a romance about Paris and fashion?
MARC JACOBS: I definitely had a romance about it. Growing up in New York City, I looked at Paris fashion and thought, Wow. That must be something. I first visited Paris when I was 17 and I cried when I left, because I thought I was born in the wrong place, to the wrong parents, in the wrong country. I had so fallen in love with Paris and I just hated to go back to New York. But I never thought I would actually end up living here, although it's the only place, other than New York, that I could ever see myself being in for a long period of time.
IS: When did you know you wanted to be a designer?
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MJ: Probably at around 13. I lived with my grandmother, and she was a pretty stylish lady. I'd go to meet her on a Friday, when she had her beauty parlor appointment, and then she'd take me to Bergdorf's, or wherever she was going. She always had a taste for designer clothes. I remember 57th Street very well in New York and I was just mesmerized by places like Bergdorf Goodman or Courreges. And I would ask my grandmother to buy me fashion magazines. I found that American fashion magazines were without fantasy, and I didn't think that that's what fashion was all about. I thought fashion was a whim, and sort of a flight of fancy, that it was about getting dressed up and playing a part. So, I'd ask my grandmother to buy me European magazines, and she would bring me French Vogue and L'Officiel. I used to illustrate from the magazines. I didn't have a model to draw from, so I would draw what I saw on the page. I actually drew from Interview, too. I guess that's how I started to understand fashion. And my grandmoth er had a dressmaker. It was very much that old school New York grandmother thing. She would take me to Jerry Brown, also on 57th Street, where she would buy remnants of couture fabric. We would go in there, and he'd say, "This is a peau de soie from Chanel's last couture collection." My grandmother would buy a meter-and-a-half, or whatever it took, and he would say, "Now, you must remember, you've got to allow more length, because on a skirt of such fabric, you should have at least a six-inch hem." Even saying it to you right now-- I hope I'm not sounding too corny--I kind of get chills, because that stuff is what I think Paris fashion is about. It's such an indulgence, and it's such a whim. It's not that it isn't wearable, but it has that indulgence which can manifest itself in many different ways. I certainly think of Saint Laurent as being very indulgent and very wearable at the same time. There is just this grandeur of the French.
IS: I am always amazed by how much the goings-on of fashion seem to infiltrate into the Parisian consciousness.
MJ: Yeah. It's funny how tuned in to fashion Parisians are. I think it's part of the art of living for, them. It's natural. But I don't mean to put Paris fashion on a pedestal, either. I can't stand thinking of Paris fashion as this museum-quality thing that's so precious you can't grasp it.
IS: Yet it does seem that France is proud of its couture culture.
MJ: Well, people in France are proud of their waiters, too. There isn't the sort of hierarchy that we have in America. They may hold certain creators like couturiers in even higher regard, depending, I guess, on what their contribution is to fashion. But, you know, people here respect waiters who've worked in restaurants for a long time. They don't think of them as waiters, they're the people who serve you this food that someone spent a lot of time cooking. I find that that's part of why I feel so elated to be here. I can't pin it down to any one thing. It's not like, "Oh, gee, I just love the shopping in Paris," or, "Oh, I love the food in Paris." I just feel like people like to be here.
IS: I don't mean this in a frozen or stiff way, but do you think life is more aesthetic in Paris, than, say, New York?
MJ: Yes. I guess I do and, if that's not really true, what there is is a love of the idea of the romance of the aesthetic, if that makes any sense. The romanticism, and romance around everything--it's almost like you're invited to indulge in fantasy, as opposed to America, which has that "get real" kind of thing.
IS: Do you think that being in Paris has allowed you to make leaps you might not otherwise have, taken?
MJ: Definitely. Inside it has helped me so much, but there's also the very real side of what it has done--which has to do with why I'm here, my relationship with Louis Vuitton, which has been an incredible thing.
IS: Sometimes, when you're walking down the street or walking into Vuitton or just meeting someone for dinner, do you go, "I can't believe I'm here! I can't believe this has happened!"
MJ: All of the above, all the time. When I'm in a taxi going by the Seine, or walking over the Pont-Neuf to work or when I see the Eiffel Tower sparkling, I just can't believe it. When Pierre and I walk home late at night, if we've eaten out for dinner, it seems like there was a lighting designer hired to do Paris. You know how the statues are just illuminated, and everything looks two-dimensional? I always think that I'm going to get behind a building and there're going to be two planks holding up the facade.
