Marc Jacobs Spring Summer 2025 “The Grand Theatre of Courage“. Story by RUNWAY MAGAZINE. Photo Courtesy: Marc Jacobs.
On a night draped in grandeur, Marc Jacobs returned to the New York Public Library, the hallowed halls of knowledge and quiet rebellion, to unveil his latest spectacle: Courage. More than a collection, this was a manifesto—one stitched together with exaggeration, conviction, and the ever-thrumming heartbeat of personal style over fleeting trends.
If fashion is a mirror to the times, Jacobs’ mirror is one of distortion and amplification, bending reality not to escape it, but to understand it. The world outside may be chaotic—cities burning, rights dissolving, friendships shifting—but within Jacobs’ universe, his woman does not shrink. She enlarges. She envelops. She commands.
A Wardrobe for the Brave
Jacobs sent out an army of women clad in padded animalistic coats, chenille sweaters mimicking fur, and sculptural gowns dipped in fiery pinks and reds. These were not garments for the faint-hearted. Bubble skirts billowed like protective armor, evening dresses inflated like opulent clouds, and paillette-covered silhouettes shimmered like surreal mosaics. Each look was a declaration, a refusal to disappear.
His theatrical shoes—horned, bubbled, curled at the toes like an otherworldly jester—dared the wearer to teeter on the edge of fashion absurdity, just as his handbags, set to become the next It-accessory, added weight to the notion that size (and presence) matters.
But beneath the spectacle, there was a tender precision. Oversized nightgowns, cut with the dreamlike ease of childhood nostalgia, brushed the floor with an ethereal whisper. Flattened skirts, evocative of paper dolls and Comme des Garçons’ past, spoke to a love of craft and construction. And then there were the evening heels—stretched impossibly long, surreal in their execution. An homage to fantasy, or a sharp jab at the impracticality of beauty? Either way, they demanded attention.
The Power of Exaggeration
Jacobs is no stranger to hyperbole, but here, every distortion had purpose. Sweaters with foam insets, skirts that stood rigid like architectural marvels, and the heavy weight of his references—Betty Boop, the Queen of Hearts, Marie Antoinette—pointed toward a broader cultural dialogue. His heroines were cartoonish, regal, tragic, defiant. They were women seen, remembered, mythologized.
His choice of soundtrack—Philip Glass’ Einstein on the Beach—was a familiar refrain, a composition as hypnotic as the subconscious, as cyclical as history itself. We had heard it before. We had seen these shapes before. But this time, they spoke louder.
The Final Plea: Use Your Voice
Jacobs no longer speaks to the press at his shows; he lets his clothes, his notes, his very absence do the talking. Courage was introduced with a single word and concluded with a plea: With precious freedom we dream and imagine without limitation… not to escape from reality but to help navigate, understand, and confront it, exploring through curiosity, conviction, compassion, and love.
But perhaps his boldest statement was the sequined dots covering the models’ lips. In a world hanging by a thread, the subtext was clear: The time for silence is over.
Marc Jacobs has always been a designer with conviction, but here, conviction transformed into urgency. This was not a collection of nostalgia. It was not escapism. It was a demand—to be seen, to be loud, to be as exaggerated as necessary in order to be heard.
See All Looks Marc Jacobs Spring Summer 2025 New York Runway
