Deconstructed Americana at Marc Jacobs

Marc Jacobs, SS16, New York.

In a palette of red, white and blue the Marc Jacobs collection for Spring-Summer 2016 was thick with Americana references and slathered with glittering stars and stripes. Within this relatively narrow concept and colour palette, the garments showed some incredible uses of embellishment and spliced appliqué, while slouchy dropped shoulder silhouettes were contrasted with razor sharp tailoring.

In a video describing the collection, Marc Jacobs talks about working with the “greatest embroiderers in the world” and the collection is filled with garments where embroidery has been layered onto a base fabric and then embellished with smatterings of beading and minute sequins to catch the light. To keep this current, the embellishment is also often made less formal by making the placements quite random. It’s almost as though some of the garments have accumulated the embellishments over time – like a bomber jacket that gets pinned with a new button at every new state in the road trip.

The use of deconstructed knitwear also made for a clever twist on logo sweatshirts with “concert band” and “bobcats” appliqués spliced through by disjointed panel lines. The treatment of the neckline was nicely rearranged on one spliced top to create a folded detail; while on another the splice created a rough V-neck.

Another interesting point about the collection was the cut of the shoulders for the tailored jackets. While the denim and bomber jackets were cut with dropped shoulders to fit with their oversized silhouettes, the tailored jackets were often cut with strong, square shoulders with a pronounced rope on the shoulder. This subtle detail helps to create an almost caricatured version of “formal wear”. These tailored garments were also often trimmed with satin, giving them the embellished formality of uniforms that could either be for fancy bellhops or for a bedazzled chorus line.

The overall effect was something like a 4th of July awards show afterparty where the red carpet dresses were given a drunken DIY update with streamers taken straight from the venue, and the jackets of bell boys had been nabbed for the late night run into a yellow cab. The trick is that the attention to detail is absolute – and the execution of the garment construction is completely committed to the theme down to the very last tiny sequin.