Design & Style, Business

Working With a Team and Collaboration

Marc Jacobs

Lesson time 12:44 min

Marc believes strongly in collaboration in the design process. Marc shares what he looks for in his collaborators and how he has worked with artists in the past to create unique designs.

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

Topics include: Bring Something to the Party • Talk With Others to Get Unstuck • Collaborate With Those Who Inspire You • Case Study: Collaborating With an Artist

Preview

I have several teams that I work with. So there is a handbag team. And there's a shoe team. And there's a ready-to-wear team. And there is a team of people I work with for hair and makeup and set. So every different aspect of design, as well as the show, comes with a team. Now sometimes the team can be one person with an assistant. And sometimes it's two people. Sometimes four people. But there are different teams. Overall, I don't know what the number is of people because if you add hair and makeup-- everything-- it becomes quite a number. But there's usually someone in charge, or the head of each team. So Joseph, who's the head of the ready-to-wear team-- there is Katie Grand, who is my collaborator and stylist that I work-- she has a team of people she brings with her when she works on the show. There is hairdresser and his team, makeup artist and his team-- there's shoe designers and bag designers. Each has their team. So it's a lot of teams. I'm a big believer in the whole equals the sum of its parts. So I'm very lucky and very happy and grateful to work with such great teams. Everybody within each team I rely on, In terms of not only helping me to communicate and execute my thoughts, but to bring their thoughts and their ideas. In fact, that's a very big part-- going back to inspiration-- that's a very big part of what inspires me-- is the input I get from the various teams I work with. [MUSIC PLAYING] I love when people are proactive. I love when people take the initiative to do things. What I don't like is people who sit around and wait for direction. I love when people have ideas and thoughts, when they are thinking for themselves, when they are creating and, again, gathering or researching, when they act on their own and bring-- like I say, I love when people bring stuff to the party. That's what I look for. And, again, people who think out of the box. So not only who take direction but who also-- like when I talked about the tangents that come from inspiration-- where they take something that we're doing and say, well this could be of interest too. Or that could be of interest too. The idea of collaboration is participation. It's not shutting anybody out. It's including them. And it's looking at what people are doing and reacting to it. So again, it's this action and reaction. It's a constant communication and a constant sharing of ideas. And that's what I think stimulates and helps to evolve the ideas. [MUSIC PLAYING] So getting stuck-- well, if you're asking me if I ever get stuck, I get stuck all the time. And I think that part of my getting stuck is that I don't realize that I'm being inspired when I am. But I constantly feel stuck. I struggle all the time with understanding what it is that is of interest to me. There are times where what I'm interested in, what we were interest...

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.

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Marc Jacobs

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

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