Marc Jacobs’ AW23 all in a New York Minute

When guests settled into their seats at New York Public Library on Monday, little did they know they’d be back in the crisp NY air before they even had the chance to open their Notes page. Marc Jacobs’ latest fashion show began precisely at 19.30, and was done with exactly three minutes later – the length of a singular TikTok video, for reference. From the designer who specially constructed an entire train for Louis Vuitton AW12, this speedy affair certainly served as social commentary. Alongside growing critique of Gen-Z’s increasingly gnat-like attention spans as a result of social media and overconsumption, Jacobs’  collection was a witty wake-up call. 

Continuing his acknowledgement of the effects of modern tech, the prestigious fashion house generated the show notes using ChatGPT. What resulted was, aside from a collective sigh of relief by fashion journalists, an incredibly vague run-through of the brief presentation. Sheer tights beneath white ankle socks and pointed-toe ballet flats were simplified to ‘flat shoes and black tights’, as expressed by Vanessa Friedman for New York Times. And, while OpenAI’s summary of the display as a ‘striking fusion of masculine tailoring and feminine elegance’ was apt in so much as a headline, it didn’t touch the sides of the show’s retro influences and details.

Of 29 looks, the main focus was, indeed, menswear-inspired tailoring but with glitzy night-out details and nods to ‘80s workwear. Artfully-crafted dresses with lingerie detailing, draped and belted suits, and mesh catsuits all added to the carefully curated retro melange, complete with ‘80s-style tousled hair. Dazzling sequinned garments sat alongside heavy wool coats and dainty lace, marking the transition between day-to-day, bordering austere looks and messy, youthful nights out. 

In all, the show was a daring, decidedly brief display that blew ChatGPT’s underwhelming description out of the water – as well as a swift wink to his punctuality problems of the early 00s. His three-minute exhibit almost made up for the infamous two-hour tardiness of his ’08 SS collection (maybe not for the show’s commuters, mind). Combining commentary on our TikTok-coded brains with a nod to growing concerns about today’s tech made for this showing one for the Marc memory books.