Marc 3?

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Suzy Menkes reports a dream come true this morning:

Marc Jacobs does not see the super-high/super-low idea as a one-off to entice customers. He and his partner, Robert Duffy, are mulling the idea of following… Marc by Marc Jacobs with a third category. And they are not the only ones to believe that to face-off fast fashion, designers could create a new category at an even lower selling point.

Translation? Marc might launch another line, even cheaper than the Marc by Marc collections, in order to compete with mass market brands (and knockoffs). Mark tells Suzy he thinks a third-tier line “can have the integrity of what we do.” Which isn’t to say it can have the cashmere knits and the creamy leather, but still - possibilities.

Flip Side: At a dinner party this summer, Ruffian’s Claude Morais asked the table if mass clothing was “the death of American fashion.” Are younger designers crushed when they can’t (or won’t) produce a cheaper line? Or will Marc 3 continue the trend of erasing “must have” items in favor of personal style?

posted by casey

Feb 27, 2007 3:14AM

This is cause for celebration!!

posted by elizabeth

Feb 27, 2007 8:19AM

I think that this is something that's been in the works for a few years now--I wonder how it's going to be distributed, and who it will target...

It'll be really interesting to see how this compares to the Marc by Marc line, that's for sure.

posted by kate

Feb 27, 2007 9:34AM

I think this is a great idea and I think designers should follow in his steps. This is not to say that they should stop making their more expensive clothing because there is obviously a market for it but the designer lines for target and all the other collaberations just go to show that it's all about the design aspect and who cares if the clothes are cheap and from target, if they're cute and designed well it will work

posted by chubbybadass

Feb 27, 2007 9:51AM

I think it's smart. As a Marc Jacobs lover & buyer I would love to get the chance to buy his stuff cheaper.

posted by emily

Feb 27, 2007 4:23PM

Yes, but it's worth thinking about the economic and environmental impact of the "fast fashion" movement, which is ruled by cheap disposable clothing. Cheap, disposable clothing requires the same kind of labor, which in the last 5 years is almost exclusively coming from China- a country with a terrible human rights record, where workers make pennies an hour to fuel America's insatiable appetite for $8 tops, and where the ecosystem is careening towards disaster as the country's infrastructure struggles to keep up with the suddenly booming capitalist economy.

Yes, it's impossible to avoid buying *something* that is made in China, but consumers need to wake up to what the real global cost is of "fast fashion".

-from a bleeding-heart liberal who still loves her Marc bag

posted by ?

Feb 27, 2007 5:11PM

Emily I agree with your points..but what about America's appetite for $1000 + handbags made of leather and other types of fabrics that require killing animals...and even the luxury market does not practice human rights...people work hard to produce something that is marked up over 100% and who's profiting from it...this is not an attack on you but if we're going to look at these issues we need consider all of them and not just focus on the easiest to target which would be the cheap-disposable clothing industry

Feb 28, 2007 12:40AM

?, I totally agree. Bringing up the luxury goods industry- and the fur industry in particular- would be opening up another can of worms!