Since it was announced last week that Marc Jacobs would be reissuing his infamous SS93 grunge collection for Perry Ellis, the internet hype machine has been working itself into a frenzy. But looking beyond the fun fruit prints and the easy mix-match layering, it’s difficult to grasp what’s really so exciting about this reboot. For anyone who has been consuming fashion in the last five years, surely we’ve had our fill of ’90s nostalgia, no? Every trend from the ‘mom’ and ‘boyfriend’ denim cuts, to skimpy crop tops, combat boots, barely-there slip dresses, scrunchies and butterfly clips have been replicated, reimagined and rehashed to death. When it comes to finding floral printed dresses and flannel shirts, most luxury brands – and almost every high street brand — has a version, with Urban Outfitters specialising in this exact combination.
Beyond the aesthetic of Marc Jacobs’ reissue, however, the concept behind the original collection is something that we are also very familiar with in 2018: taking a pedestrian style and creating a luxury version of it. It’s the same concept behind the AW18 Fendi Mania collection, in which Fendi has reconfigured its logo to look like that of Italian athletic brand Fila and is selling a €490 euro version of a €12 slider — and people want to buy it. It goes without saying that borrowing from streetwear is one of the main ways that the luxury fashion industry stays relevant today.
Still, Jacobs was the first to do this and set the bar high with his Perry Ellis SS93 collection. His flannel print slip dresses are made of silk and the blazers, worn with beanies and graphic Robert Crumb t-shirts, are pure wool. He expertly paired pastel tees with electric plaids and searing vegetal prints in a way that broke all the rules, but managed to still somehow work. He took youth culture and made it fashion.
But where he did this is also important. Jacobs already had his eponymous label at the time, but was working as head of Perry Ellis womenswear. Founded in the 1980s, at the time the brand was known for its preppy aesthetic, taking men’s suiting prints and applying them to womenswear. Although Jacobs won the Council of Fashion Designers Award the same year he took grunge to the catwalk, he was fired from Perry Ellis because of it. For the uptown label, a collection based on second-hand clothing looks that you could put together for under €20 was just too much to take.
Despite mixed reviews from critics at the time, Jacobs landed on his feet and became the ultimate symbol of cool in the fashion world. This reputation landed him the position as first-ever creative director for Louis Vuitton womenswear in 1997, a job specifically created to lend a youthful edge to a luxury house that specialised in leather goods with a more than 100-year heritage. Jacobs’ cache as one of the most relevant figures in fashion lasted him through the 2000s and into the 2010s, when his cool seemed to fade as the world moved away from his brand of ‘it’ girls. In 2013, Jacobs was finally replaced at Vuitton, which recently found a new star known for turning streetwear into luxury — Virgil Abloh.
Jacobs has an undeniable legacy, but there is something about his style that does not feel cool anymore — the elusive cool evades the designer who was once at the forefront of defining that concept. Unlike fashion brands of the ‘90s like Calvin Klein and Versace, whose new collections have benefitted from the recent wave of nostalgia, Jacobs does not feel far enough in the past to be resurrected yet, and rebranded as cool again for a new generation.
With all of the grunge-inspired luxury looks — and not to mention a high street wall-to-wall with ‘90s nostalgia-inspired pieces — we don’t really need these literally seen-it-before Jacobs’ ensembles in our wardrobes. Putting aside Jacobs’ transparent attempt to appear up-to-date, however, there’s no denying that the SS93 grunge pieces are collectibles that serve as a benchmark for elevating streetwear to a luxury level.
See the full collection below:
The collection is in stores from 15 November.
All images by Juergen Teller, courtesy of Marc Jacobs.