Living in the Seventies - Marc Jacobs Spring/Summer 2011

all images: getty via daylfe

Bianca Jagger, Jerry Hall and Marie Helvin didn’t ride out on white horses from behind the circular Richard Serra-lookalike set (most likely signed by Marc Jacobs’ go-to stage designer Stefan Beckman), but with their frizzed-out Sarah Moon hair and bleached-out Aladdin Sane eyebrows, Jacobs’ Spring/Summer 2011 models sure looked like Studio 54 refugees. When decked out in gold lamé or Brady Bunch stripe knit hotpants, skinny rib sweaters, bandeau “boob tubes” and floppy sun hats, with more than a little Iris from Taxi Driver thrown in for good measure – the child prostitute played by Jodie Foster in Martin Scorsese’s 1976 film. Another key reference for this collection appears to have been Yves Saint Laurent’s influential Ballets Russes collection, also, coincidentally, from 1976. There were voluminous off-the-shoulder peasant dresses and tops, often in the signature YSL colours of violet and red, with oversized safari jackets over maxi skirts echoing an earlier YSL collection. With flowers in their hair and at least one palm tree emblazoned on a top, this collection felt a little more Resort than Spring/Summer. But this has been a very safe season in New York so far, with the GFC still impacting on US retail, as it continues to bite elsewhere. There were some beautiful, commercial, chevron-striped chiffon dresses and sweet crochet swimwear, but it's the hugely-flattering, high-waisted bellbottom trousers which may well Fly Robin Fly out the door.