There s a wonderfully mischievous and at times puerile spirit that runs through Marc Jacobs secondary line, perhaps none more so than in the Fall men s collection, a collaboration with the multidisciplinary and wholly unorthodox art collective Assume Vivid Astro Focus (AVAF). The label s design director, Daniel Salmon, came across a catalog of the artists psychedelic street pop and knew immediately that the duo—a Brazilian and a Frenchman who split their time between São Paulo, Paris, and mostly New York—was a natural fit with Jacobs playful, puckish anti-hero.
Art observers may make a connection between AVAF s Whitney Biennial contribution a few years back, a faux-vandalized pavement-scape, and the brand s own skate-rat tendencies. But no. The colorful eccentrics that figure prominently in this collaboration are based on four decidedly drag-y characters dreamed up by AVAF, their exaggerated lips, hair, and breasts jostling for attention. And if that weren t enough, they are also cyclops, making for highly entertaining prints to say the least. Not just prints (some in subtler gray scale), but also intarsia and needle-punch knits. No one ever said the Brazilians or the French—or, for that matter, Marc Jacobs—were afraid of a little body alteration.
Of course, cornea-searing febrile hues and amply bosomed, one-eyed cartoon characters aren t for everyone. Truth is, as much as the Marc customer is intellectually adventurous and artistically open-minded, he s also athletically inclined. So a range of snowboard-appropriate attire was judiciously added to the mix, replacing the sporty quotient of last season, surf punk. These were pieces unmistakably made for the outdoors: heavy-duty denim jumpsuits, canvas pants with cargo pockets, fake-fur-trimmed Velcro parkas, a nylon Harrington, no-fuss ski jackets (some that could turn into a backpack), an après-ski striped mohair sweater, and one eye-popping Fair Isle hoodie in neon—surely AVAF s influence.
