FW24 MARC JACOBS x ROBERT THERRIEN

Culture

Feb 5

What is it about playing with scale that is just so delightful?

From the moment I saw Marc Jacobs’ newest collection for Fall 24, I recognized the sculpture that inspired his endless, playful experimentation with scale: the art of the late artist Robert Therrien. His No Title (Folding Table and Chairs) was the glorious, irreverent elephant in the room, the models and designs mere paper dolls under its monumental scale.

I, too, have had my paper doll moment. I walked under a Therrien table in the Gagosian booth at Frieze New York in 2018—it was a magical moment of dollhouse delight. I spent plenty of time with that sculpture, taking immense pleasure from witnessing many others do the same, sharing in their elation, thinking, “This is public art!”

And in a way, fashion, too, is public art—on a personal scale. It is for our public selves.

Robert Therrien’s *No Title (Folding Table and Chairs, Green)*, 2008 featured in the Gagosian booth at Frieze New York in 2018

One of the (many) things I love about fashion is its endless connections and inspiration from art and visual history. As a historian, it is so much fun to pull the red thread that connects these new inventive forms and fantasy worlds to the past. It was such a thrill to watch this show and see Marc reinventing himself season after season within a brand, extending this easy fantasy world of child’s play we all once inhabited to the everyday mundane act of getting dressed.

Scale is one of the readiest ways to really have a lot of fun in design and, more seriously, create something that is sculpture for the human form. I love what Marc has done here. He has humor and genius. I want to be seated at a dinner party with him.

Also, those exaggerated set-in waistbands are

THE solution to getting back to our hard pants!