A Marc Jacobs Café?

Whereas his work for Louis Vuitton is unconditionally elitist, Marc Jacobs likes nothing better than to have fun spreading the low cost hype via his eponymous labels. After having launched an accessories line having nothing on (Paris discount store) Tati, today he inaugurates a bookstore named Bookmarc and is planning a Marc Jacobs café in the heart of New York.

He unhesitatingly poses nude for the launch of his latest perfume; he sticks his tongue out a the honorable Suzy Menkes; he even puts Victoria Beckham in perspective. He always seems to be going against the fashion establishment. With the help of his associate and friend Robert Duffy, Jacobs has incessantly taken us in new and unexpected directions.

While the New York designers are producing "it" accessories at stratospheric prices, Jacobs takes the liberty of offering tons of $2 trinkets in his second line boutiques, without fear of conferring a mass-market aura to the Marc by Marc Jacobs accessories. To tell the truth, the designer seems to take an evil pleasure in flirting with the cheap side of the force.

Does Jacobs have an old account to settle with the fashion world? Has he been overcome with Dadaists ideas? Regardless, never has a label gone so far in the diversification of genres and in the caricatured exploitation of the system.

Like two school boys left to their own devices in the world of adults, Duffy and Jacobs have set no limits to their megalomania. Even as a bookstore named Bookmarc opens in Manhattan, the duo is already seriously thinking about opening a Marc Jacobs Café uptown.

This being said, if the project is realized, we hope that Jacobs will assure the excellence of the food served. It would be a pity if the said café were to be treated like the rest of the dream team Duffy/Jacobs productions, i.e. without paying attention to the quality of the finished product.