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THINGS I LOVE vol.20

I want to talk about Marc Jacobs' Louis Vuitton. Marc was appointed creative director of Louis Vuitton in 1997. Since Tom Ford took over as Gucci's creative director in 1994, Gucci has continued to make rapid advances. Louis Vuitton must have been watching this closely, and I think they decided to have Marc Jacobs follow suit. It's ironic, but interesting, that the two leading European luxury brands, Gucci and Louis Vuitton, have been successfully rebranded by two Americans, Tom Ford and Marc Jacobs.

I first interviewed Marc Jacobs around 2000. It was in the magazine "BRUTUS". At the time, Mark's reaction seemed quite cold. ``Clothing sales account for less than 5% of Louis Vuitton's sales anyway.'' I thought this was the complete opposite of Tom Ford's thoroughly positive attitude. Regarding the room we used for the interview, he said, ``Look, this room isn't my room. I'm just using an empty room for the interview.''

After that, he went on to create his own line, such as collaborating with Takashi Murakami, but his men's line didn't have very strong proposals, and I think it was just a collection that embodied "relaxed and street". Perhaps because of the image he had during the interview, Mark's creations have always had an offbeat image to me. It was interesting to contrast him with Tom Ford, who came out of Texas and was full of ambition to make his mark in New York. Come to think of it, Mark was interested in Asian and Japanese culture. The same goes for the music field, and one day Shonen Knife's ``BAGGS'' was playing at the show venue. "♪Both the cat and the ladle.”♪Everyone has it.''♪Walk down the street and you'll find Louis Vuitton... I can't believe I wore this at the Louis Vuitton show venue. Japanese people who understood the Japanese lyrics had a hard time holding back their laughter.

I liked the knits and coats of Louis Vuitton's men's clothing designed by Marc Jacobs, and I often wore them. I especially liked the unique texture of the rubberized coat, so I bought two of them. The rubberized coat was released when my son was one year old. At the time, my family and I were staying in Europe during the collection season in February, but since there was a gap of about a week between collections and it was a pain to go back to Japan and come back again, we decided to spend that week in Scandinavia. Moved from Paris to Stockholm. As we were about to arrive at Arlanda Airport, my one-year-old son started crying due to the change in air pressure. I picked up my son and walked him around the plane, still wearing my rubberized Louis Vuitton coat. At that moment, my son vomited. On top of the coat I just bought. Now that I think about it, I understand. There are many people who don't like the smell of rubberized coats, even adults. Being held by my father wearing that coat probably makes me want to throw up. I quickly wiped away my son's vomit, returned to my seat, and prepared for landing.
I asked for my coat to be cleaned at a hotel in Stockholm, but the reply was, ``Rubberized material is not possible. It would be best to have it cleaned after returning to Japan.'' I put it in a plastic bag, took it home, and ran to a dry cleaner in Tokyo, but they refused, saying they couldn't rubberize it. This was the first time I learned that rubberized items cannot be cleaned. Is this possible now that technology has developed? By the way, the outer side of the coat was a beautiful and chic brown. And the lining was a Damier pattern. I don't have it on hand right now. I think they probably threw it away because their son was still throwing up and they couldn't clean it.

This time, we introduced a rubberized parka type that we purchased around the same time. When I pulled it out of storage for the first time in a while, I was surprised at how crisp it was. I thought it looked like dried squid (squid?) and when I put it on, a part of it stuck to the inside came off. It's rubberized and difficult to store.

The caution label also proves the collaboration with Macintosh. There are many things written about it, such as to store it in a cool and well-ventilated place when not in use, to avoid dry cleaning or machine washing, and to wash it with soap and a soft brush if it gets dirty, but this is the first time I've read it!

When you lift the side zip, you can see the Damier pattern on the back side. This was really cool at the time.

After 26 years, this hooded parka has become crisp. When I first bought it, it had an outstanding silhouette and the material was innovative. It was a great parka. Now when I wear it, it makes crunchy noises all over the place. The typical rubberized smell has almost disappeared, but it's probably best not to wear it on the train.。

■Tomoki Yuma (@stsukezane）
Born in Kyoto City in 1965. Started his career as an editor in the editorial department of Magazine House ``POPEYE''. Currently, in addition to planning and styling fashion pages for magazines, she also designs advertising costumes for artists and musicians. Before the coronavirus, he covered men's collections in Paris and Milan for over 35 years.

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