Marc Jacobs Reveals The Naked Truth
Marc Jacobs reveals all in an exclusive interview with GQ.
Marc Jacobs is one of the sharpest, quick-witted men in fashion. His career has been wrought with highs, lows and a number of truly scandalous moments, and here to discuss them himself is none other than Marc Jacobs.
GQ: Thinking of your fragrance campaigns in the past, there are a lot of sexual undertones to them. In fact, ‘undertones’ is a bit of a reach. They’re fairly blatant. We also can’t help wondering about that butt pic that ‘accidentally’ slipped on your Instagram account a while back. Do you actively use sex to sell your brand?
Marc: Well, sex is always good, isn’t it? Well, actually it’s not always good, but it’s always a good thing. I think scent is sensual. I guess evoking a mood or a spirit is key and I think with the women’s fragrances we have evoked different types, moods or sensibilities of a woman – whether it’s Daisy with the sweetness and the innocence or Lola, which is more provocative, sexy and sultry. It’s interesting how you can differentiate those moods through colours and form. But for me fashion is something hot, sexy and impactful. Everything follows from there.
GQ: Back to the Instagram pic – you seem to be pretty confident, physically speaking. I mean you’ve appeared almost naked in your campaigns before. Do you ever feel self-conscious?
Marc: I do feel self-conscious, but probably not so much about my body as I do about other things. I am a human being. I did it for a number of reasons though. First of all I was in a controlled environment in a room that I was familiar with. Back when we ran those campaigns I had just become (with the exception of smoking cigarettes) very healthy. I worked out in the gym two hours a day for the past couple of years and so taking off my clothes was not something that I felt really insecure about. I have taken my clothes of for Juergen [Teller] before that, for Bazaar, Louis Vuitton and for Stephen Sprouse. It seems like I have been naked in just about every publication there is, so why not Instagram, too.
GQ: So you enjoy being naked…?
Marc: It’s funny because every time I go to a shoot now, and I have clothes on, they inevitably come off. I just did one a while back and the stylist was like, ‘So…’ and you just know that they are going to get to the point where they say ‘Can you take your clothes off?’ Maybe it just makes a better picture, right? With the campaign, it was my business partner Robert’s idea. I um’d and ah’d about it but really, I have no problem with taking my clothes off. I feel more confident about the way I look now than I have ever before.
GQ: Well, after working on your body, you may as well just get it out…
Marc: It’s fine. It’s not a rebellious act, I’m not doing it to shock anyone. I’m not a model so the idea of modelling a suit or clothes is weird in itself. We did this one story for Interview a while ago when Katie Grand styled me and she put me in all these different clothes, different outfits, women’s clothes, men clothes. That was quite fun to dress up; my hair was dyed orange, I wore a Warhol wig and all this crazy stuff, but that’s where they used me as a model, so it worked. But for most of these pictures they are just interested in me as a personality, so the clothes become too much of a focus. Unless they are plain or I’m naked it just says too much about fashion in a way. When we did the ‘Bang’ fragrance campaign, I’m just really glad that we changed the graphics around [on the ad] from what it originally was, which was ‘Bang Marc Jacobs’. I think that would say something slightly different…
GQ: You are into your grooming and fitness and you admitted to having hair transplants a few years back. How did you find the procedure?
Marc: Yes, I’m into everything. I care about how I look so what’s the point in hiding it, right? I am self-conscious and I know how I prefer to look and I prefer to have hair. My hair was thinning and had been for years. A few of my friends have had transplants and I thought about it a couple of years ago, but then chickened out. Finally I came out after a show and when the light hit the back of my head I thought, ‘Oh my God!’ because it was so thin and because I was dying it black it looked even thinner. So I thought, ‘Well, if they have all done it and my friends felt happy with the results, I’m going to try it.’ But, oh God, it was really painful.
GQ: You had the strip method?
Marc: Yes. It was painful.
GQ: There is lots of new stuff happening in transplanting but they are not there yet in some ways…
Marc: I did it once and the doctor who did it said you will have to come again to get the results that you want. Honestly, no regrets but I haven’t seen the results yet because it will take months to grow in. But it’s all too fresh in my mind and the idea of going through that pain again is not something I really want to do.
GQ: In your campaign images, your tattoos are quite prevalent. Can you talk us through them?
Marc: Well I have a lot of tattoos. My first tattoo I had when I was a teenager was just a little heart. I am very friendly with a great artist Scott Campbell and I started going to him to get tattoos. I’m very spontaneous about what I get. There is a story behind each one of them but they were all very spontaneous thoughts. They are permanent but I don’t give it that kind of importance. They are just things I felt like doing at that time – if anything they are like my diary of where I was at that particular moment and there was a reason for each one.
GQ: Can you explain the reason behind your SpongeBob tattoo?
Marc: Well, I had just worked with Richard Prince on the collaboration for Louis Vuitton. Richard had done a series of paintings of SpongeBob. He mentioned in our conversation how he saw the artistic value of SpongeBob as the cartoon and I kind of liked it, so I did it, and now I get sent all these SpongeBob things from Nickelodeon and from the creator of SpongeBob. It’s funny.
GQ: Why did you wait so long to launch your men’s fragrance back in the day?
Marc: It wasn’t that I waited – we were really busy. Not just in fashion. we were busy in the fragrance world, too. People came to us season after season saying, ‘We need to do a new women’s fragrance’, and then we started working on the splashes which were a great cult success. So finally they approached us and said, ‘It’s time to do a new men’s fragrance’, and we said, ‘Sure, that would be great.’
GQ: Do you have any early memories of fragrance?
Marc: Yes, I always remember my dad’s, mom’s and my grandma’s perfumes.
GQ: Do you have any weird smells you like? Personally I love the smell of old leather…
Marc: Oh yes. There is a weird smell I love – it’s an electric smell, the things you plug in? Atomizers! They put them in hallways of hotels sometimes on smoking floors. I also like wood burning and spices.
GQ: Do you have a favourite book?
Marc: The Berlin Novels by Christopher Isherwood. It’s good.
GQ: You are obviously into music. What music do you download?
Marc: Um, actually I don’t know how to download music! I am really useless at that stuff. I know how to Google and send e-mails – that is literally it. But I have been listening to Lady Gaga. I saw her play in Paris, she is a friend and I love her music.
GQ: Do you dress her?
Marc: No, but she has worn our clothes before and she is a friend. I really like her, her music, Nicola [Formichetti] and all their ‘Haus’.
GQ: Why do you start wearing wear kilts?
Marc: Oh, long story. A few years ago I was here in the studio and I had no time to go out shopping and I knew we were going to spending a lot of time at work because we were preparing for the show. So I asked Casey, my assistant, to go out and I said, ‘Why don’t you go to Barneys and buy me a pair of funny pants that will put me in a good mood?’ So he came back with a kilt from Commes des Garçons. I tried it on, I liked it and of course it got a lot of reaction from the company in the samples room. I was walking around in sandals and a skirt all of a sudden and everyone was amused and I felt good and actually I was very comfortable.
GQ: More “airy”?
Marc: It just started this whole kilt addiction. I always say when something feels good to me I do it. I go for it. Whether it is the gym, eating well or wearing a kilt. If it feels good, I do it. But I don’t really wear them anymore.
GQ: If you could come back as another designer, who would it be?
Marc: I wouldn’t come back as anybody but the greatest designer, my hero in fashion, is Yves Saint Laurent.
GQ: Where is your happy place after a bad day?
Marc:In bed. When it’s been a long day I just like to lie on my back and stare at the ceiling. It actually doesn’t even have to be at home or in my own bed, just horizontal on my back, staring at the ceiling. I find that after a long and exhausting day, even if I’m not tired, it’s like a sort of self-hypnosis. I can just let go.