marc jacobs - resort 2009

the rarified world of french haute couture is a far cry from the street wear sensibility that marc jacobs is so synonymous with. so it was a poignant surprise that only a day after that yves saint laurent, the one who defined couture in the later half of the century passed away after a long battle with brain cancer, jacobs presented a resort collection that was influenced directly by the image of the saint laurent woman. although saint laurent and jacobs couldn't have come from a more different background they do in fact share an abundant of similarities. without saint laurent bringing street fashion into the exclusive world of high fashion, where would designers like jacobs, or westwood, or gaultier be? jacobs also shares with saint laurent the ability to make super luxurious clothes without the obviousness of it. for his resort collection, jacobs played with a lot of iconic saint laurent trademarks. the pant suit for example, the defining image of saint laurent was re-interpreted into luxurious silk ensembles with the ease of pyjamas. the typical symbol of french frivolity, the bow, decorated everything in the form of a simple detail or fully covering chiffon pants belted with a giant bow edged in gold thread. there was also a heart motif, another saint laurent favorite that appeared towards the end of the presentation. pieces of chiffon hearts were attached and layered on top of each other to form a dress that was so saccharine in its girlishness and prettiness it was enough to give you a tooth ache. despite all the decorations and detailing, jacobs' also showed a talent of combining the strong jewel toned colours saint laurent himself toyed with so extensively. the death of saint laurent might've stole some of the thunder from this somewhat ironic collection, but it also proves that while saint laurent wrote the new vocabulary for the woman of the last half century, jacobs might just end up re-writing the codes of the old master.