Marc x Marc Jacobs Is No More
Rumors have been circling since January that Marc x Marc Jacobs was shutting down, and now WWD is confirming that the accessibly priced line is folding into the main Marc Jacobs collection. Marc Jacobs will now, according to the story, feature a wider variety of products and prices, from the affordable to the designer.
Sources inside LVMH—the luxury conglomerate that owns Marc Jacobs—have confirmed the same to Yahoo Style, although others insist that the Marc x Marc Jacobs team have developed product through 2016.
That falls in line with the idea that the new Marc Jacobs will encompass more than just $3,900 dresses and $3,200 handbags. (A mixed-media dress from the spring Marc x Marc collection is $358.) What will come of Marc x Marc Jacobs’ creative directors—womenswear designer Luella Bartley and accessories designer Katie Hillier—is still unknown. With all of Marc Jacobs under one umbrella, it’s likely that the aesthetics of higher and lower priced items—which have looked quite different in the past—will be more closely aligned.
The report comes after the fate of Jacobs’ men’s business was questioned earlier this year. (The team at Marc Jacobs, by the way, has yet to comment on these rumors.) The moves seem to indicate a streamlining of the Marc Jacobs business, which LVMH wants to transform into the next Michael Kors. In 2013, Jacobs—arguably the most critically lauded American designer—left his post as creative director of Louis Vuitton to focus on his namesake label and to build it into a brand big enough to be spun off into its own public company, the way Kors did in 2011. “Marc Jacobs wasn’t even a $10 million company when we invested in it. Now it’s making a billion euros a year in revenue,” LVMH ceo Bernard Arnault said on a call with investors in 2014. “Marc Jacobs is the most emblematic designer in the United States. [An IPO could mean] that over the next five to 10 years one company could equal a third of the value of the group.”
As for when that IPO will happen, it looks like it’ll be a while.
Related: Kendall Jenner is Marc Jacobs’s Latest Campaign Star
Related: The Marc Jacobs Creation That Took A Week To Complete
