A bril­liant show at Marc Jacobs’ Spring ’09 –full of spec­tac­u­lar frocks, which is the per­fect word to describe them –and great jew­elry that com­pli­mented each look with sur­gi­cal, yet sar­to­r­ial, pre­ci­sion. Those bold bracelets he showed with flour­ish, stack­ing them up the arm so that they cov­ered the wrist like shirt cuffs, thereby mak­ing them insep­a­ra­ble from over­all look (some­one must have cast an eye towards Ralph Lau­ren coun­try — where every­thing from clothes to jew­elry is an organic part of the land­scape). Asym­met­ri­cal neck­laces with bold flo­ral sta­tions and large beads here and there offered a marked del­i­cacy to the strong shoul­ders and jaunty mix of fab­ri­ca­tions. Sculp­tural pieces played with spa­cial rela­tion­ships, the body vs. col­or­ful object; the arma­ture of each bear­ing weight on the whole com­po­si­tion. Neck­laces were placed either close to the body, set within the frame­work of an open neck­line which exuded a more staid, delib­er­ate state­ment, or tossed atop the heap, adding an extra layer of tex­ture and color. Brooches were either large and natty or small, del­i­cate swatches pinned to the shoul­der to break up the solid­ity of color.

Didn’t care for the large, dark oval pen­dant ear­rings he showed towards the end– again, a dis­pro­por­tion to the face and the small­ness of the hair is a dra­matic look that mainly suc­ceeds on the run­way. Also didn’t like the tas­sel ear­rings, they didn’t flat­ter the length of the model’s neck, pud­dled on the shoul­der and reminded me more of cur­tain tie-backs than jew­elry. Yet despite these slights of fancy, Jacobs must be hailed. He con­sid­ers every detail — includ­ing how he sees adorn­ment as part of his blue­print. He builds his house from the foun­da­tion upwards, which is why we almost always love his architecture.

Marc Jacobs Spring ’09

Marc Jacobs Spring ’09

Marc Jacobs Spring ’09

Marc Jacobs Spring ’09

Marc Jacobs Spring ’09

Marc Jacobs Spring ’09

Marc Jacobs Spring ’09