A Close Encounter at Harper’s Bazaar

photo by Nan Goldin in Harper's Bazaar

Harper’s Bazaar September issue resurrects Calvin Klein into the fashion world, but this time as a reporter interviewing the talented American designer Marc Jacobs. The two fashion honchos dished on Marc’s health, his new fragrance “Bang” and the creative process generating not 1, or 2, but 3 runway collections each season. Check out some of my favorite highlights after the jump.

 In discussing a recognized signature or aesthetic, Marc Jacobs reveals how he cannot always pin point his own. He says “I guess when I look over my shoulder at other designers, I feel like people are so definitive. It’s so clear to me what their aesthetic is, what they’re projecting. And I look at my own work and I think, Who could ever decipher what the hell is going on?” The design process is different for every designer, but the thought of finding the talented Marc Jacobs screaming “Does anyone have any ideas, anyone have any thoughts?” to a room full of people was very amusing. Marc Jacobs lifestyle change, the implementation of exercise and supplements and the elimination of “junk food,” was also interesting to hear about, but one can only wonder how difficult it was because sobering up from junk food and town car services is no easy task.

             Cavin Klein also prods into Jacob’s more complex view of fashion, where one suspects how his passion for his work can often be at odds with consumer and sales expectations.  He reflects on his last collection “It was this feeling of a quiet beauty, and that came right after a season when we said we’d do crazy, romantic, kind of stage clothes, where there were ruffles on top of ruffles and pearl trim.” This seemingly romanticist view of fashion though is adjacent to a more demanding arena of fierce consumerism. Of Louis Vuitton Jacob comments “If the luggage didn’t have a logo all over it that everyone knew meant that it had cost a certain amount of money, I don’t think it would sell the way that it does.” SO it’s here where Jacobs finds success, I think, in his ability to gracefully connect the beauty of his creativity with consumer demands.

              Finally I want to note one of Calvin Klein’s last reflections, a melancholy that maybe explains his absence from the fashion world. He says, “When I came to the business, I got to know a lot of those women. They worked at the magazines. Now it’s different. There’s something that’s now more modern. Maybe that was just another time.”

 Now it is my turn to ask, “Where are all the women, and men, who still treat dressing as a ritual and event, not as a need that just happens?”

Signed,

TooKul4Skull

Interview and pictures at www.harpersbazaar.com