Roving Reporter: Marc by Marc Jacobs

The younger version of MJ gave two pieces of advice yesterday: Wear your layers bulky, and keep piling them on.


For women's wear, Jacobs' formula was to start with tights (whether in autumn colours, stripes or geometric patterns) and cold-weather-survival boots. From there, he added dresses accentuating the natural waist or roomy peg-leg trousers with bold and cosy jumpers. Many of his looks were topped off with velvet hats and blanket scarves.



Luxurious textures played a big part - think wide-wale corduroy, rich herringbone and oversized houndstooth. And when textiles were basic, colour and construction were not. How about this turquoise dress with ruffles both on the button panel and the skirt?


In terms of menswear, Jacobs maintained the boots and voluminous trousers, but put up grandpa cardigans with shirt-tie combos and structured blazers. The designer upheld the spirit of the line by keeping things bold in a season when many are going dark, and all the better for a line targeting young label-lovers who want to mix their plaids with stripes (another of Jacobs' techniques).

My only gripe with this season of Marc by Marc? That it wasn't around when I went to uni. Life would have been so much easier if I had pieces like these to grab off my floor 20 minutes to lecture time in the winter months.