To end New York Fashion Week, Jacobs took over the Ziegfeld Theater sidewalks included and put on a show stopping spectacle worthy of the days when the Ziegfeld was a hot ticket in the town during the 1930’s and 1940’s. If the red carpet and line up of real-life fans and step-and-repeat, by which models had to walk before entering the theater and stage-runway, were any hint, this was going to be big. The clothes were signature Jacobs. Messy, beautiful, punk, ladylike, shiny, grungy, grandpa, and glamorous all in one. A veritable soupcon of ideas pulled together.
There were tons of red-white-and blues done in jazzy sequins dresses cut with the seam peaked-shoulder, nipped waist silhouette from Hollywood’s golden age, or a sweet tomboy sailor pant worth with lace-up boots from the turn of the last century. But then he spun his time machine to the glamrock 70’s, with platform boots holding up a hungover-looking girl in red hot shiny leather pants a bow blouse and a varsity jacket with patches including the playboy bunny. Elsewhere, Old Glory herself was redone was a shiny leather jacket over a perforated leather skirt and red cowboy boots, Hello Texas! Each look was a visual treat, like unwrapping a gift and finding a surprise. Crochet lace dresses with outrageous feather details and debutante-pretty gauze gowns covered in flowers looked beautifully oddball. But more fun was the face of a model blown up and screaming -in fear? delight? Lets say both- that he printed over an opera cape (worn over a denim dress printed with tickets), a trim day suit and the skirt of Bette Davis -worthy looking.
Jacob’s is a student of history and fashion. Like the ringleaders he referenced in the shiny embroidered jackets he showed on the runway, he knows how to entertain- while still delivery some solid clothing. He loves humor and irreverence, and is really good at poking fun at fashion and celebrity… perhaps because he knows a thing or two about both. So yes, the night is pretty awesome- especially when the models were broadcast on a giant screen.
Xx, B