Marc Jacobs and his FW22 collection (dubbed Runway 2022) digital lookbook must be a new consideration to how theatre is presented during fashion week. A known master of ceremonies, his theatricality was a missing tenet of Fashion Week as COVID-19 had the world in a bind, constantly pressing play and pausing. His Fall/Winter 21 (hyperlink) ‘Happiness’ was spearheaded by the subtlety of his return to New York City. Transitioning into the new year, it seems that Marc Jacobs, like many of us, is embroiled in whether there is truly ribbon to mark the finishing line as the restrictions of the pandemic lighten without a guarantee that we will not return. 

In Runway 2022, the digital is not a limitation to the parameters of Marc Jacob’s spectacle. Rather, it highlights an evolution that resides in being enveloped in uncertainty. The Fall 2021 collection was rooted in structure, the proportions of outerwear enveloping models, and his signature logo emblazoned across sportswear. This year, Jacobs has a resourceful twist, deconstruction overhauling and granting the garments a new, modest context. Shredded and laced t-shirts, overblown logos, and inside-out seams deliver a variably different fantasy. It’s a recognition to the at-home tailor, making do with what you are stuck with. It’s glamorous yet ghastly, as practical basics like cargo and puffer jackets are entangled with the composition of opera gloves and binding sequins. 

It would be too simple that this collection has shown what can be done with so little rather, it is a gesture to what may be a new turn for Marc Jacobs. There still may not be a clear finishing line, but at this point, Marc may not care to seek that line any longer.