NEW YORK -- Twice a year, the New York fashion world trudges to the Upper East Side and the cavernous Park Avenue Armory to see what new tricks Marc Jacobs has up his sleeve.
Somehow Jacobs, who has the final Fashion Week slot every time -- a position of considerable pressure -- tends to find a way to surprise and impress. But on Wednesday night he also sent a jolt of delight through the crowd with a joyful and dreamlike ode to fashion of all kinds and all eras.
"Tonight is our reminder of the joy in dressing up," he wrote in notes left on guests' chairs, "our unadulterated love of fashion and embracing grand gestures of unbridled expressions, reactions, ideas and possibilities."
If that was a mouthful, it reflected the ebullient mood of the show. Normally, Jacobs' models walk down a runway in a dark room with a determined pout on their faces. Here, the lights were on and the models were smiling, winking, even waving as they sashayed by.
The room looked different, too. Entering to take their seats, guests found the huge Armory floor empty except for a gaggle of mismatched white chairs arranged in uneven rows at the back, as if in an abandoned vintage furniture store.
Entertainment on 09/15/2019