Design & Style, Business

Runway Shows

Marc Jacobs

Lesson time 17:09 min

For Marc, it all leads to the runway. Learn Marc's approach for creating an exciting show, including what he looks for in models.

Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars

Topics include: Inspire, Delight, Surprise • Runway Choices Stem From Your Designs • Picking Your Location • Choose Models Who Inspire You • Music Is the Soundtrack to Your Runway Show • It All Comes Together Right Before the Show

Preview

The runway show is very important to me. It's the sum of everything we've been thinking about throughout the season. It's that place that you can transmit not only ideas about texture, and clothes, and proportion, and shape, but also about emotion, about style, about spirit. And it's also a theatrical experience which, for me, is like what inspires dreams and, again, desire. It's, you know, I don't know. I mean, I've never wanted to be a director or a writer or anything like that. But I imagine a director choosing it's cast, and working with a casting person, choosing a cast to tell a story, put that to music, and costume it. It's like really having that moment where you can gather and collaborate with all the different people you work with on putting all these choices together to tell a story. Clothes are inanimate objects. Accessories or inanimate objects without a life, without the life. They just don't mean very much to me. I mean, they might be beautiful things to look at. But again, it's in the movement of these things, and in the context of a space, or with a concept that they come alive. And so working towards the show, I mean, it makes the choices difficult. But it gives me a goal to work towards, I guess. If we just made a collection to hang in the showroom or if they were just clothes on a rail, I don't think I'd enjoy doing this very much. [MUSIC PLAYING] What makes a great runway show is a surprise, is giving something people don't expect to see. It's that kind of, again, I think, the people I most admire in fashion, the people who regularly attend my shows, what delights them the most is when they come in and they see something that's exciting that they didn't expect. That's fresh. That's new. That's different. Of course, they love fashion. And of course, they love the sort of theatricality of the event. But again, it's something unexpected. It's something they didn't know they were going to see. And I think of fashion as a form of entertainment. I think getting dressed is a form of entertainment. And again, it's something we want. It's not something we need. So you have to inspire. You have to delight. You have to surprise. [MUSIC PLAYING] We think about the runway from the very beginning, although I don't think that's the most important concern in the beginning. As we start working on fabrics and silhouettes, as the accessories become clear, as the look starts to gel in our heads, and we start to fine tune all the little bits and pieces, then comes that thought of like, now what environment do we want this to be seen in. Or how do we further transmit this spirit? And what does that sound like? What does that look like? And how can we do that? You know, sometimes within a bigger budget. Sometimes within a smaller budget. Sometimes to fewer people. Sometimes to many people. ...

About the Instructor

Marc Jacobs’s infamous grunge collection got him fired. It also won him the CFDA Womenswear Designer of the Year Award. In his first online fashion design class, the 11-time CFDA Award winner teaches his hands-on process for creating clothes that push boundaries and set trends. Learn Marc’s construction techniques, how he creates unique shapes and silhouettes, and how you can develop your own ideas from the first sketch to the final piece.

Featured MasterClass Instructor

Marc Jacobs

In 18 lessons, iconic designer Marc Jacobs teaches you his process for creating innovative, award-winning fashion.

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