Marc Jacobs

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Marc Jacobs was born on April 9, 1963, to a secular Jewish family in New York City. When he was six, his father, an agent at the William Morris Agency, died. His mother, who remarried three times, was, according to Jacobs, "mentally ill" and "didn't really take care of her kids." As a teenager, he went to live with his paternal grandmother on the Upper West Side. He grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, and attended Teaneck High School. He studied at Parsons School of Design in New York, where in 1984 he won the Perry Ellis & Chester Weinberg Gold Thimble Award and Design Student of the Year. In 1987, he became the youngest designer ever to receive the Council of Fashion Designers of America's Perry Ellis Award for New Fashion Talent. He also won the Women's Designer of the Year award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1993.

In Their Own Story

At age 15, Jacobs worked as a stockboy at Charivari, a later defunct avant-garde clothing boutique in New York City. While studying at Parsons, he designed and sold his first line of hand-knit sweaters. In 1986, backed by Onward Kashiyama USA, Inc., Jacobs designed his first collection bearing the Marc Jacobs label. In 1988, Jacobs and his creative collaborator Robert Duffy joined the women's design unit of Perry Ellis as creative director/vice president and president, respectively. In 1992, he designed a "grunge" collection for Perry Ellis, which was critically well-received but its commercial failure led to his dismissal. In fall 1993, Jacobs Duffy Designs Inc. launched their own licensing and design company, Marc Jacobs International Company, L.P. LVMH acquired a majority stake in the Marc Jacobs brand in 1997, the same year it named Jacobs Louis Vuitton's first creative director. In October 2013, after the Spring/Summer 2014 show, it was revealed that Jacobs would leave Louis Vuitton to focus on his own line.

Reader's Guide

Marc Jacobs is the head designer for his own fashion label, Marc Jacobs, and formerly Marc by Marc Jacobs, a diffusion line which was produced for approximately 15 years before it was discontinued after the 2015 fall/winter collection. At its peak, it had over 200 retail stores in 80 countries. He was the creative director of the French design house Louis Vuitton from 1997 to 2014. In spring 2001, Jacobs introduced his secondary line, Marc by Marc Jacobs. In order to concentrate on the growth of his primary brand and cater to a more upscale clientele, Jacobs announced the closure of his subsidiary label Marc by Marc Jacobs in March 2015. In September 2020, Jacobs released Heaven, a polysexual line aimed at a younger audience while blurring gender boundaries. In 2024, Jacobs pledged that his products would not use or sell animal fur – and that they had not since 2018 – in response to a pressure campaign from animal activists. In 2026, LVMH sold the brand to New York-based brand management firm WHP Global.

Did You Know?

• Marc Jacobs was on Time magazine's '2010 Time 100' list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
• He was #14 on Out magazine's 2012 list of '50 Most Powerful Gay Men and Women in America'.
• Jacobs married his longtime partner Charly Defrancesco on April 6, 2019.
• At age 15, Jacobs worked as a stockboy at Charivari, a later defunct avant-garde clothing boutique in New York City.
• In 2024, Jacobs pledged that his products would not use or sell animal fur – and that they had not since 2018.