Fashion Week Postmortem: The Great Marc Late Debate

The furor over the great late Marc Jacobs show continues. Yesterday, Marc and his C.E.O. Robert Duffy told WWD that they thought the critics were out of line.

Marc said: "I think this is so unfair. We do a huge production show, we try to give fashion and do a major fashion show in New York. I have no say in the show schedule, the show schedule has been moved up a week, and another week, and as far as I'm concerned we showed two weeks early not two hours late."

[Some history: Until 1998, the New York shows used to come last, after Paris, until Helmut Lang and Calvin Klein (the power shows in those days) decided they were losing out in wholesale sales (they claimed retailer's budgets had been spent in Europe) and became weary of "copycat" criticisms. The CFDA followed suit and moved all the shows forward and combined them with the men's shows.]

And Robert said:
"Marc and I were up from Friday until Monday. Marc wasn't drinking, he wasn't doing drugs, he wasn't at the Mercer Hotel having a cocktail while everybody was at the show waiting. He was with me backstage."

But still, I find it somewhat confusing since every other show in the week started more-or-less on time, including his own Marc by Marc Jacobs show the next day. I am wondering when Marc began designing the collection. Procrastination is an important part of any creative venture and perhaps that's what got the best of him?

To find out I wrote to Robert and Marc care of their PR and asked if they could qualify the following points for Fashion Inc:

WHAT DID MARK AND ROBERT MEAN WHEN THE SHOWS WERE "TOO EARLY." AREN'T THE SHOWS ALWAYS IN THE BEGINNING OF SEPTEMBER?

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH HOLIDAYS IN ITALY? ARE THE RUNWAY SAMPLES MADE THERE OR IN YOUR ATELLIER OR SOMEPLACE ELSE?

AT 10 P.M. WHEN PEOPLE WERE GETTING TEXT MESSAGES SAYING, "THE CLOTHES ARE ARRIVING," WHERE WERE THE CLOTHES?

WHEN DOES MARC START DESIGNING THE COLLECTION?

HIS WASN'T THE FIRST SHOW OF THE WEEK, AND THE MARC BY MARC JACOBS SHOW WAS NOT LATE, SO WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE WITH THE MAIN COLLECTION?

But it seems not to be. I was told by a spokesperson: "Please note that the record is as it stands, just please refer to the WWD article."

In the same article, they also threatened to move their show to Paris where they felt they would be more appreciated. Today, Diane Von Furstenberg, head of the CFDA, implored Marc to keep his show in New York. And I suspect that when temperatures cool, that is probably what he'll do. His is one of the most exciting shows in New York. In Paris, his would just be one of many. Plus, he's got a Vuitton show to do there -- it must help to have a gap between the two. We shall see.

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