Marc Jacobs' menswear line is every bit the designer collection—produced in Italy, full of specially developed fabrics and hand-finished details, and investment-priced—but its attitude is anti-precious. The label calls this approach "weird luxury." Maybe "flip" is closer to the mark. Train a gimlet eye on Marc and the luxe pops out. Sometimes it's hidden, as in the nylon bomber jackets that turn out to be lined in cherry red beaver, and sometimes it's hidden in plain sight, like the thrift store flannel shirts that turn out to be cashmere. Even Marc by Marc, the designer's contemporary secondary collection, rarely plays it so cool.
Jacobs and his team drew their inspiration this season from the unlikely marriage of nineties skaters and Istanbul. The former provided the technical details, like reflective sheens on track pants and bags, and the vintage-seeming, often slightly militaristic shtick (many pieces look straight from the army navy store, until, of course, that beaver lining pops out); the latter, the scorched-earth palette of mustardy brown, khaki, and terra-cotta red. Jacobs treats the finest stuff with a here-today, gone-tomorrow irreverence, like cashmere sweaters felted or pilled, sweatshirt-style. Whatever, dude! If you're devil-may-care, you might care quite a lot—especially about the standout-as-usual shoes, with gold nail-head details.
