Marc Jacobs Fall 1994 Ready-to-Wear Collection

Editor’s note: This year was a big one for Marc Jacobs, who marked his 40th anniversary in fashion and became the first guest editor of American Vogue. We’re closing out 2024 with an archival look back at the designer’s career. This fall 1994 collection, presented in a loft in SoHo in April 1994, has been digitized as part of Vogue Runway’s ongoing efforts to document the history of fashion shows.

This was a comeback show for Marc Jacobs. Not long after presenting his infamous grunge collection for Perry Ellis in 1992, the brand decided to discontinue womenswear, and the designer allowed himself a break. During that period, he told Elsa Klensch, “I had time to think about what it is that I really love.” Hearts, which appeared throughout the collection, seemed to be one object of his affections, as were diamond brooches in the shape of letters and numbers. The latter were cheekily used to write out a telephone number on the le smoking Amber Valletta wore. Jacobs indulged in the mad mix, pairing a leopard skirt with an electric blue sweater and a taxi yellow jacket. Kate Moss’s LBD was accessorized with furry earmuffs. There was lots of latex, but also customized Fair Isles, plus diamanté spaghetti straps on a valentine red knit dress, laminated A-line minis, and a skating dress hot enough to melt ice. Suffice it to say, Jacobs was having a ball playing with notions of ladies and vamps and good and bad taste. In Vogue he said his process was “all about insane combinations. Anything goes in fashion today.”

The designer definitely returned with his sense of fun intact, and at a time when Vogue was crowing about “putting the fun back in fashion.” The magazine ran a four-page editorial, “Colorful Character,” on the collection, and Bloomingdale’s Kal Ruttenstein declared it “a whole new way of dressing, perfect for the ’90s, and a wonderful way for Marc to come back.”