Last night, the iconic halls of the New York Public Library turned into a runway for Marc Jacobs‘ Spring/Summer 2025 show. Jacobs–who no longer sticks to the calendar– kicked off New York Fashion Week before its official launch, with a show that has the industry buzzing. Jacobs called this season’s collection ‘Courage,’ and it totally lived up to its name. If you’ve followed his recent work, you know he loves dramatic silhouettes, so it was no surprise to see ballooning sleeves, cartoonish shoes, and sky-high volume on the runway.
From the moment guests settled into their seats, out came extreme volumes. If that sounds like pure whimsy, it is because it kind of was. But in Jacobs’s hands, it felt like a bold statement: “Go big or go home.” Color was front and center, paired with Jacobs’s signature playful details: twisted leather doctor’s bags and paillette-covered looks that sparkled like disco balls. Shoes took on an art-piece dimension, with pointed toes stretched to comedic lengths and pumps that bulged like cartoonish balloon animals.
The makeup—dreamed up by Pat McGrath—featured round spots of color on lips and cheeks, giving models a theatrical, doll-like quality. It was a wink at fantasy, but never slid into parody.
Jacobs didn’t linger onstage. By the time the final look cleared the runway, the audience was double-checking their watches in disbelief: the show was over in six minutes flat. But that blink-and-you-missed-it pace only underscored the collection’s exhilarating vibe. It was a headrush of creativity, a lightning bolt of color and quirk, then poof, gone, leaving everyone wanting more.
In just six minutes, Jacobs showed us that courage is about embracing the fantastical, stepping outside the box, and letting your creativity run wild.
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