Marc Jacobs’s SoHo Store Opening—And a Debbie Harry Performance—Was a Cause for Celebration

Though his most recent runway showing may have spanned an intentionally brief three minutes as a commentary on the breakneck pace of the fashion schedule and media consumption, Marc Jacobs seems to have called for the opposite approach last night. Lasting some 5 hours, Jacobs celebrated the opening of his new SoHo store. It was a homecoming of sorts—it s where the designer and his team have been headquartered for over two decades, and in the neighborhood’s pre-commercial heyday, it’s where one may have found Jacobs enjoying the company of friends like Helena Christensen or Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry, both of whom were in attendance.

Unfolding in the basement of The Mercer Hotel, once Mercer Kitchen and now known as Sartiano s, as well as the further-subterranean and almost-never-open club space Submercer, hidden some three stories below ground, the party came with a fascinating, perhaps intentional catch: Little to no mobile phone signal, meaning that posting in realtime was cleverly hampered.

This is not to say the photo fodder was lacking, though. Anok Yai, Tommy Dorfman, Sophie Sumner, and June Ambrose sauntered through the rooms in glittering, polka-dotted runway confections paired with sky-high platform heels. Bartenders whipped up vodka fizz cocktails by the tray full while Shygirl performed. Even the aforementioned Miss Harry took to the stage to belt out a set of her Blondie hits. With all of these theatrics swirling about, there was certainly no lack of flashbulbs, reaching a fever pitch when Jacobs himself joined Harry on stage for a hug and a shimmy before the crooner, with her signature blonde locks tousled in true rockstar fashion, delighted the crowd with a rendition of “One Way or Another.” Her parting words? "We’re gonna launch that flagship motherf*cker!”

In all, the evening turned out to be a lesson in reveling in real-time rather than posting, because, unless you plan on hiding under a rock or perhaps whiling away in the basement of The Mercer Hotel, which some may choose to do once Submercer makes its rumored comeback this fall, the news of this store opening and its accompanying festivities was going to find you eventually, one way or another.