Marc Jacobs goes vampy Victorian for fall 2025

American designer Marc Jacobs on Monday revealed his latest women’s collection, once again off schedule, for the fall 2025 season, with the New York designer looking to blown-out silhouettes and doll-esque detailing.

Returning to the New York Public Library, Jacobs’ stage of choice for his spring 2025 collection in February, the latest offering from the New York designer was a punctuated line-up of just 19 looks, soundtracked by “Song for Jesse” by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. 

“Beauty. A quality or combination of qualities that gives pleasure to the mind or senses and is often associated with properties such as harmony of form or color, proportion, and authenticity,” read the concise show notes, leaving the rest up to the discerning eye of guests, which included Julia Fox, Nicky Hilton, Ego Nwodim, Anna Sui, Jessica Wang, Tina Leung, June Ambrose, and fashion matriarch, Anna Wintour.

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Recruiting model muses Alex Consani, Sascha Alexandra, and Agel Akol, Jacobs sent out a fairytale, whimsical collection of exaggerated proportions, which felt like a continuation of his doll-faced girls seen last season.

But, instead of cartoonish, his reference was neo-19th century, made up of Victorian-inspired vampy gowns, cut with leg-of-mutton sleeves, inflated bustiers, and sweeping trains stamped by enormous bows.

Not one to appropriate a historical era of fashion, the designer mixed in baggy cargo pants, and truly oversized trousers, pinned so to fit the model as she walked, as well as a billowy blouse, and very on-trend slip dress, taking his woman into the 21st century.

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The majority of gowns featured lace or micro-floral prints, across a colour palette ranging from lilac purple to coffee brown and raven black, each model walking out on Jacobs’ foot-engulfing heels, adding to this childlike quality of dressing up a doll.

The last two gowns saw Jacobs go into vampy Victorian overdrive; one look a black-on-violet leg-of-mutton sleeve gown with deep ruffles and huge matching bow on the head. Only to be outdone by the finale dress, which had even bigger sleeves and a plaid top with a giant matching bow; black lace falling from the opening of the ruffled, billowy skirt. 

The blink-and-you’ll-miss-it show lasted just five minutes. But, as always, it was a poignant expression from one of fashion’s most incredible creative minds, at a time when originality in fashion is few and far between.