Marc Jacobs' name is synonymous with Louis Vuitton, having worked with the brand since '97, but his 16-year tenure as creative director with the French fashion house may be coming to an end. Reuters is reporting that Louis Vuitton may not renew Jacobs' expiring contract, an industry insider told the news source.
Louis Vuitton, although known for its infamous monogram, is finding out the hard way that today's consumers are moving away from overly-branded items, and has seen around a six percent drop in its annual sales this year.
Although Jacobs is responsible for creating the brand's first ready-to-wear collection, it was speculated earlier that displaced fashion designer Nicolas Ghesquière was a name Louis Vuitton was interested in. Ghesquière, the former designer of Balenciaga, was lauded for bringing the legendary but relatively stagnant house back from the brink and making Balenciaga the label that was synonymous with edginess, sexiness, and relevance. This sounds like just the treatment LV might need.
So what would a Jacob-less Vuitton look like? Starting with the brand's bags, "Marc Jacobs has done fantastic work at Vuitton but I think that today we need to reframe the leather goods and fashion proposition which has until now mainly been focused on the bags," a source told Reuters.
If Jacobs gets the axe, at least fans of the designer can still cop his eponymous brand and slug back some Diet Cokes, which Jacobs happens to creative direct, too.
[via Reuters]
