As decade crunching continues to move forward at breakneck speed, it is inevitable that a designer as acutely attuned to the style buzz on the streets as Marc Jacobs should pick up and run with the '80s vibe currently setting a younger generation of style-makers on fire. For luxury house Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs revisits Paris in the '80s, paying homage to the looks featured in publications like the so-hip-it-hurts style manual JILL, and translating them into must-have modern looks.
The early Madonna moment—beret, oversized sweater slouched off one shoulder and short, leather pencil skirt--was skewered and chic-ed up with luxury fabrics. Think of that sweater in corduroy-seamed sheared fur, the skirt in satin thick as leather.
Early Montana and Mugler signatures were evoked in details like the decorative silver-press stud fastenings on the shoulder of a satin print T-shirt, silver cube buttons as closures on man-size jackets, curving seams on footballer-shouldered jackets and zippers diagonally splicing 7/8 coats. Jacobs' twisted palette also brought the decade flooding back—endless existentialist black of course, spiked with café au lait, chocolate, peppermint and teal (dazzling for a crocodile trouser suit). His tortoise-shell, sequined mini dresses closing the whirlwind show were suspended from—or trimmed with—the fine gold chain that was also used for the adorable midget disco purse—just big enough to hold that members' pass for disco hot spot Le Palace.
