Few occasions have shook the style world over the previous few weeks just like the passing of Vivienne Westwood. And so, on the night of February 2, Marc Jacobs staged a last-minute fall 2023 present in New York Metropolis titled “Heroes,” with a Westwood quote prominently featured within the present notes: “Trend is life-enhancing, and I believe it’s a stunning, beneficiant factor to do for different individuals.”

It’s been three years since Jacobs hosted a runway presentation at his ordinary spot, the Park Avenue Armory, however for thus many causes, he made it definitely worth the wait. Enter: a visible and sonic feast. Suppose: fashions rising from full darkness into tender mild to the tune of violinist Jennifer Koh taking part in Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Seashore. Debbie Harry and Debi Mazar sat entrance row, taking all of it in.

Formally, style month hasn’t even began but. However the couture and pre-fall exhibits have proved designers are already placing a serious emphasis on quantity and construction. Jacobs has proven that’s certainly one of his robust fits in spades—piling on the drama for his exhibits which have, lately, shifted from closing the official New York Trend Week calendar to going approach off-schedule. Right here, we noticed his penchant for wacky, virtually absurd-level quantity explored, however with a slightly utilitarian twist. Components like suiting and conventional cargo pants, for instance, have been turned on their heads. There have been huge winter coats that in some way seemed each wearable and like an instance of extremely technical shapes, reinvented. Clothes shape-shifted to seem like different issues totally. Was it a shrug or a bit jacket wrapped and tied across the shoulders, twisted into an summary type?

There was an allusion to the thought of taking part in with private area on this assortment. For instance, lots of the fashions walked with their arms crossed, backlit by the dramatic shadowing. It was all sufficient to make one marvel if the garment was constraining the mannequin, or if the mannequin was constraining the garment. The thought of clothes as a protect has been talked about rather a lot within the post-pandemic world, and these creations introduced that concept to thoughts. The shadows solid on one mannequin after the opposite additionally created a dystopian impact, as friends have been seated in a single row of folding chairs.

However that didn’t imply the gathering wasn’t with out humor. Take, as an illustration, a fluffy, yellow-pastel gown paired with elbow size, leather-based opera gloves. The mixture felt barely off-kilter, a bit classic and a bit bizarre—simply what we would anticipate from a Jacobs interpretation of Westwood’s work. Oversize shoulders, huge bows, and brief spiky hair that resembled Westwood’s personal in her early days cemented the gathering as being one which felt enjoyable in its formality. Draped polka dot robes have been topped off with single strands of pearls—one of many many, many inherent Westwood references—together with advanced blouses impressed by Westwood’s 1981 Pirate assortment.

If the present exhibits have something to say about footwear, it’s that terrifyingly teetering heels are the brand new pièce de résistance of any wardrobe. Jacobs had each single mannequin stroll in his infamously towering Kiki boots, which he lately reissued below his Heaven line. Westwood, too, beloved a scary-high heel, as seen in her 1993 present, when Naomi Campbell fell within the Tremendous Elevated Gillies heels.

In a world the place style collabs really feel so ubiquitous, there’s one thing celebratory and new about one designer seeking to one other as a reference level. Jacobs might have a couple of hero, although—as a result of inside this assortment have been items that appeared to additionally pull from different varied style legends, together with Rei Kawakubo and past.