’90s Marc is so back! For his Runway 2026 collection, Marc Jacobs returned decisively to his roots, reframing his signature aesthetic within a new and self-aware context. In a rare and beguiling act of transparency, the American designer laid out, receipt-style, the precise collections that inspired his latest offering. These references spanned both his own archive and those of fellow designers, underscoring Jacobs’ enduring role as both creator and devoted student of fashion history.
A cobalt-blue coat with a back-to-front construction traced its lineage to Yves Saint Laurent’s 1965 couture collection. Boxy ultra-miniskirts and sleeveless sequined tube tops nodded to the spirit of Kim Gordon’s cult ’90s streetwear label X-girl – an especially intimate reference given Gordon’s longtime friendship with Jacobs. Elsewhere, silk pencil skirts and buttoned-up shirts echoed silhouettes from his own namesake collection in 1998. The explicit nature of this inspiration list did more than provide context; it affirmed Jacobs’ creative self-assurance and revealed the collection as a love letter to fashion, written by one of its most genuine admirers.
True to form, Jacobs’ fascination with the tension between awkwardness and sophistication remained central. That unease began with the hair: wigs designed to replicate each model’s exact hairstyle from the day of the casting, lending the show an uncanny, hyper-specific realism. Shirts and suit jackets were deliberately shrunken, with cuffs extending conspicuously beyond sleeve hems. Skirts appeared almost papery in texture, holding rigid, sculptural shapes that felt daring.
A leather look – anchored by a white moto jacket and black belted hot pants – was both provocative and sophisticated when paired with thick wool tights and delicate silver slingback heels. It was elegance, destabilised. As ever, Jacobs delights in challenging the boundaries of what is considered polished or proper. And once again, he proves that pushing those buttons is precisely where his power lies.
Words by Martin Onufrowicz
