Marc Jacobs Welcomed Us to His (Victorian) Dollhouse
In the gap between men’s fashion week and couture, Marc Jacobs reminded the industry that New York has still got it. Tonight, the designer gathered everyone inside the New York Public Library’s main branch for his 2026 runway presentation. Guests, including Julia Fox, RHONY’s Sai De Silva, and Tina Leung, looked playfully voluminous in last season’s runway collection, taking care to mind the foot-long toes of their high heels as they slapped up the marble steps.
The beauty of a Marc Jacobs show lies in his ability to choose. Will he wipe last season’s slate and begin anew? Or will he continue to percolate on design ideas and see how far he can push them? This evening was a combination of both. True to his word, the show began at 7:30 P.M. sharp. By 7:36, 19 looks later, it felt like it had all been a dream.
It’s no secret that Jacobs has played with proportion and dimension over his past few collections. His models often look doll-like, their exaggerated silhouettes and cartoonish beauty frozen in time like a high-fashion Flat Stanley. This season, those ideas expanded—quite literally—offering further iterations of these bulbous shapes through round, pinup-like silhouettes, plumply padded hips, boxy drop waistlines, and vacuously large puffed shoulders. The haunting aura of these twisted bodies was emphasized by music that can only be described as the ambience to an abandoned antique doll house.
Via both material and styling, there was a noticeable added element of destruction that pointed towards a more punk-rock attitude, even within the still-picturesque silhouettes. Where his previous collection felt like a study in dressing classic American icons, this one was more like its rebellious younger sibling who grew up all too fascinated with the spooky eccentricities of A Series of Unfortunate Events.
In true punk fashion, Victorian and romantic silhouettes were constructed, twisted, and then undone before our very eyes. The necklines were high; the heels were higher. Bows were blown up (in case anyone thought the motif had gone away), lace was erratically layered over undergarments, and pearls were draped across a bullet bra-esque bustier.
What this season offers is a master class in deconstruction, as Jacobs has now portrayed two sides of the same doll-like coin. All that’s left is for you to choose.
Alexandra Hildreth is the Fashion News Editor at ELLE. She is fascinated by style trends, industry news, shake-ups, and The Real Housewives. Previously, she attended the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Following graduation, she moved back to New York City and worked as a freelance journalist and producer.
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