Linda Evangelista and Marc Jacobs Reminisce on ’90s Fashion

I don t understand the question.

Yeah, okay, let s get rid of that one.

Okay.

[upbeat bright music]

It s Linda, I m Marc, in case any of you are confused.

When did we both become aware of each other?

Do you know?

I knew about you before I actually met you

because there was like a lot of buzz.

Marc Jacobs, Marc Jacobs, there s this Marc.

Marc.

I know where you re going with this.

I had just got a job at Perry Ellis,

which was a big design company here in New York at the time.

And I knew of you from a photograph that you did

with Steven for American Vogue.

And I have to say, you know, I love Steven s work so much

and I was just looking every single month

like for anything that Steven did.

And there you were.

And I got this job at Perry Ellis

and I was like, I want Linda Evangelista

to be in our first campaign.

And you cut your hair.

I think we were on a shoot.

I showed up, you were there.

And Orbe was doing the hair,

France was doing the makeup,

and they poured a bucket of cold water over your head.

And that was the picture.

Where was the fashion?

We hadn t made any clothes yet.

So there, we just did a T-shirt printed

that said Very Ellis instead of Perry Ellis.

And you were holding it down and they dug,

and it was before the Ice bucket challenge.

Like it was the original ice bucket challenge.

I think it was 87.

Yeah, sounds about right.

87, 88, definitely.

And then I did do campaigns.

Yes.

I did do your show.

Yes.

And I did meet you.

Yeah, yeah.

And I understood the buzz.

Oh, thanks.

And I understood the buzz about you too.

cause like there was nobody who could go from this to that

like and just nail it every time.

You were like incredible and still are.

What were the early days of fame like for you?

My dream was always, always,

well, since the age of 12 to be a model,

like my dream was to be on the cover of Vogue.

My dream was to be shot in fashion.

My dream was to do fashion shows,

and to be in magazines.

Never in my mind did that include,

you know, I want to be famous.

I just wanted to be successful.

Yeah, I didn t understand there s a difference

between successful and famous.

And the famous part that was hard to come to understand,

even for me.

And then apparently I said really dumb things,

like, I won t get outta bed.

Stuff like that.

Which, you know, in your twenties, I think,

well I m not going to include you all,

but I wanna say we all say dumb things in our twenties,

but it s not something I would say now.

But at the same time, I don t regret it

because it was said, you know, tongue in cheek.

I m was trying to say, I know my worth,

but I wouldn t quite phrase it that way today.

Yeah.

I always thought it was kind of a cool and funny thing,

an offhanded thing to say.

But it did also make sense.

You know, like you, you basically were like,

if I have a job to do, I ll get out of bed to do it,

but this is what a job is to me right now.

What are your memories of the nineties like?

So hard to describe.

It was one thing and the next thing you changed it up,

and made it like all grungy.

And I was so confused.

You were so confused.

I was like, how do I fit in here?

Well, but that s, I m really glad you brought that up

because you know, one thing I don t know how it came up,

but I was thinking about like all those incredible images.

You were it, it s like, it was the funniest thing.

No, I wasn t, Kate Moss was.

No Kate, I get.

Because she was like the [inaudible] thing.

But what was funny to me on the outside

was like there were those photographers

and they were like, Well, Linda works.

I had the body type

because I was never then curvaceous.

I always had kind of that, you know, svelte body

so I could adapt in that way.

And then yes, they worked with me.

So they all gave me a chance.

And I remember there was like all this talk

about the demise of the supermodel

and we were over and we were finished,

and I was like, We are?

I was working every day

and I mean, and 93 was the year they said it was over.

Right.

It was over for us.

And I was on September 1993 American Vogue cover.

So not really.

Yeah, not really.

I fit in and I liked it.

Yeah.

And I actually enjoyed dressing.

Yeah.

That way.

Yes.

It was very exciting.

It was an exciting period.

Yeah.

And necessary.

Cause it was going in such a bedazzled,

opulent, more is more, and more is better way.

I think there were a lot of things going on.

I mean, for something like that to affect

all kind of creativity, it happens on the level

of art and fashion, and film.

Culture.

Yeah, like culture.

But you managed and that s the genius of you.

You managed to do it in a luxurious way,

like the fabrics were so beautiful.

Yeah.

And the textures and the sweaters,

they were just so beautiful.

I think for me at the time,

it was the idea of like appreciating

and celebrating something beautiful

that was never considered beautiful.

So like it may feel beautiful, et cetera, or luxurious,

but I think it was also just looking at things

in a very, very different way.

I mean, I remember looking at a skirt length

that, you know, two years prior

would ve been considered dowdy and wrong.

And it s like, yeah, that s what s so nice about it.

Yeah.

You know?

Yeah.

So do you have like an archive of like clothes?

I do, I do.

So in my mother s home, I claimed the bottom floor.

One might call it a basement, but it has windows.

So I don t think it s a basement,

but there s a room in there with all of my work,

like the actual magazines, catalogs, brochures.

Wow, so the full magazine?

Yes, it s all in there.

Like 90% nicely organized.

And then there s these cedar closets that I had

made in France that move around on wheels

and they have the most beautiful clothes in them.

Some [inaudible] and Chanel,

and nice things that don t fit me.

Instead of sitting there, they really need a home.

And that s a project that I would like to get to.

And then I have my awards,

my mom has all my awards, like in a curio cabinet.

Nice.

I mean there s not that many.

Well, I m sure it s a few.

There s a VH one, there s one from Gorbachev.

There s like few awards.

Nice.

How about you?

As a company, we keep most of the collections

that I ve done recently in an archive.

And I think Michael, who does the press,

has kept like all the press books,

tear sheets I think is what we used to call them.

Tear sheets.

Tear sheets.

And I think we have old VHS copies of fashion shows

that have never been transferred.

You better hurry up and get those transferred

because there s like-

They ll dissolve.

Probably one company left that will.

Will do it.

I know that coming out of a documentary.

Oh, I was gonna say, you know,

when my Perry Ellis career was over

after the grunge collection

and they were like, Bye, see ya.

I started doing, you know, I had like,

we started up our own company and you did that first show.

In fact, Christie came in

and she was like, I m not doing runway ever again,

but for you, when you re ready, I ll come back.

How many times did she say?

Well, that was the first time she actually.

The first time she said that, yes, okay.

Yeah, she said it a few times.

Like, she came back for me recently, you know, whatever.

Yes, she did, thank God.

But, but I was gonna say is

that early on in my career post Perry Ellis,

I couldn t afford to pay anybody.

So I gave you and the others clothes, you know.

Thank god.

No, but that was so, so I didn t save anything.

So there s no archive of that period.

I can give you back those pieces.

You got everything.

I think I have the yellow rubber coat.

Do you?

I think I do.

It s probably like dissolved.

Like, I don t know how.

I don t know, it s in the cedar closet.

Well, if you find it,

I wonder if cedar and rubber really-

Temperature control.

But if you come across it and you ve got nothing.

Whatever state it s in it, it ll be good.

It might be melted.

Not in Canada.

It s in Canada.

Oh.

It didn t melt.

It s cold.

Yeah.

Cold, okay.

So, all right, I skipped this question,

but I m gonna ask it anyway.

What does it mean to have a friendship like ours

in this business?

It s precious.

It s precious.

I mean, I turned to you during COVID

when we initially all got into lockdown.

It was so scary.

Hmm.

We ve lost so many people in our industry.

I mean, going through the eighties,

I was around for like 85 on,

and that was a scary time.

I lost my first booking agent to AIDS

and I don t know, we just have lost so many people,

and we ve lost, and how many designers have we lost?

And hairdressers, and makeup artists, and photographers.

And I don t know, as time goes by,

I just try to hold on as much as I can to my real friends.

And it s hard to make real friends in this business.

And you know, a lot of it s fleeting

and we don t live in the same place,

and we re all moving around, and flying,

and jet setting, and crossing paths

and it takes a real commitment to remain friends.

But what s great is when you do make a real friend,

even if you don t see each other for a while,

when you reconnect, nothing is lost.

Yeah, yeah.

I agree with you completely.

I remember very well during the pandemic

and we were in that like group chat conversation

and you know, and it was really special I thought

to, you know, kind of reconnect with you

because I hadn t seen you or spoken to you

or heard from you in a while.

And I always remembered your Christmas parties.

And so, you know, there was like that hope,

I think during that period where I just went back in time

and think, Oh, I missed this,

and I missed that, and I missed this.

Yeah, okay.

Well that was a really beautiful answer, Linda,

And this is why I love him.

[audience applauds]

[upbeat bright music]

[Marc] Thank you everybody, thank you.