Marc Jacobs Returns to the Runway For Fall/Winter 2023

In February 2020, Marc Jacobs showcased his Fall/Winter 2020 collection at New York Fashion Week. Less than a month later, the COVID-19 pandemic halted the entirety of the fashion business, from shows to showrooms to production. Since then, Jacobs has produced three digital collections, showcased without in-person attendees. But after three years away from the runway, the designer has returned with his Fall/Winter 2023 show at the Park Avenue Armory.

It's part homecoming and part tribute. "With the turn of another season in our endless search for value, importance and possibilities, it is through these collections that we continue our ever-expanding notions of beauty and craft," reads Jacobs' show notes. "With a controlled abandon and driving frenetic energy we reflect on life beyond the studio."

Titled "Heroes," the collection honors "all of our heroes past, and, young heroes present." This is a celebration of innovators and boundaries pushers, those who inspire, and, in particular, the late Vivienne Westwood, whose work at the forefront of the punk movement was clearly influential to Jacobs in the '90s. At the bottom of his notes, Jacobs includes a quote from Westwood: "Fashion is life-enhancing, and I think it's a lovely, generous thing to do for other people."

Throughout the show, the punk references called back to Jacobs' early work: spiky and dyed hairstyles. Utilitarian elements like cargo pants seemed to be repurposed into body-hugging garments, while models donned single strands of pearls around the neck as a nod to Westwood.