Marc Jacobs Is Actually Responding to the Fashion’s Calls for Diversity
“From the moment I heard “The Rain” back in 1997, I was entranced by the genius rhythms and brilliant rhymes of Missy Elliott. Missy’s music has kept me and my design team happily energized through countless weekdays, weeknights, and weekends during those long hours of sketching, fitting, styling, and doing looks,” Jacobs said. (Photo: Courtesy of Marc Jacobs)
There’s a reason Marc Jacobs is known as the “bad boy” of fashion. While his antics are well known (most recently, he accidentally posted a revealing, sexy selfie on Instagram and has a hard-partying reputation), it’s his latest campaign giving the designer antiestablishment cred.
The creative recently unveiled advertisements for Fall 2016 featuring Missy Elliott, Sissy Spacek, Genesis P-Orridge, and models including John Tuite, Carlos Santolalla, Binx Walton, and Grace Bol, among others. On his Instagram, Jacobs said the cast “represent a collective embodiment of love, honesty, integrity, courage, strength, curiosity and inspiration.” He went on to write: “Together, as one story, this collection is a reminder to question and challenge normal and to continue exploring and pushing boundaries.”
“I was 13 years old when I first saw Sissy Spacek’s hauntingly disturbing portrayal of the pale Carrie White in the film Carrie,” Jacobs shared. “The life she brings to all the characters she has portrayed as an artist is ever expanding, evolving, and inspiring.” (Photo: Courtesy of Marc Jacobs)
Shot by David Sims, the photographs are a bold statement of inclusivity and diversity at a troubled time in America. The lineup includes women in a variety of ages (Spacek is 66), race (Elliott, Walton, Bol, and others are people of color), gender (Genesis identifies as a third gender), and sexuality (Tuite and Santolalla are the first gay couple signed to a modeling agency).
Yet incorporating untraditional spokespeople isn’t some one-off public relations ploy for Jacobs. Last September, Beth Ditto walked the spring 2016 runway show for the brand and appeared in the campaign as well. In January, RuPaul Drag Race’s Milk appeared in an ad as himself (also known as Dan Donigan) for the brand too. In that same campaign, Lana Wachowski, the trans director behind films such as The Matrix, made an appearance. Even Cher, who accompanied Jacobs to the Met Gala in 2015 before appearing in his campaign.
The fact that this has become a trend for Jacobs is especially significant, as it brings real action to the industry’s current calls for diversity. By incorporating such variety — age, race, size, sex — it makes the point that diversity isn’t just about skin color but is more holistic, including lots of voices and faces and presenting them on a large platform to the ever-impressionable world of fashion and beauty. And if the social media response is any indication, this is what people want.
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