Fashion Design Blog

Submitted by The Fashion Informer Blog

As anyone who follows the New York retail scene knows, there’s been a lot of outcry among West Village residents about the changes that have occurred since the opening of the first Marc Jacobs boutique on Bleecker Street back in 2001 (Jacobs has since opened four additional stores in the neighborhood, and so many other designers have followed his lead that Bleecker now looks like a mini-Madison Avenue).

As a longtime W. Village resident, I was pretty much on the fence myself. I love Jacobs’ designs but loathe the fact that my formerly sleepy ‘hood is now awash in tourists looking to sate their MJ/Ralph Lauren/Lulu Guinness jones - and don’t even get me started on the new Coach, Juicy, Steve Madden and Tommy Hilfiger stores. (The horror. The horror.)

But then I got a call from my neighbor, Bronx-born poet/performance artist Eve Packer, who wanted to share the exciting news that she’d bumped into Jacobs’ business partner, Robert Duffy, on the street outside the new Collection store and, following an impromptu 15-minute conversation, her books and CDs were going to be carried in all Marc Jacobs and Marc by Marc stores nationwide. Say what?!

I stopped by the Collection and Marc by Marc stores, and sure enough, there was Eve’s book, “Playland,” and her spoken word CDs, “West Frm 42nd” and “Cruisin w/Moxie,” alongside Patrick McMullan’s latest tome, “Glamour Girls” and CDs by Minimize to Maximize and Unsolved Mysteries.

I rang up Duffy to get the scoop, and to see if this is something they do as a matter of course. “We decided to carry Eve’s work because she showed me a copy of her book and I really liked her poetry,” Duffy told The Fashion Informer when I tracked him down in LA. “And, yes, we carry the work of local artists - books, CDs, DVDs, jewelry - in every city in which we have a store. We’ll even commission local artists to do t-shirts that we’ll sell worldwide, not just nationally.”

Why?

“Because,” said Duffy, “I think it’s great, and that’s what I like to do.”

As for what it’s meant to someone like Packer, who has been plying her trade for some 30-odd years in this most unforgiving of cities?

“Lets put it this way: After that astounding by-chance-taking-my-laundry-to-the-laundromat conversation with Robert Duffy (whose name I managed to ask on the spot at the time, or I don’t believe I would have even known who this Superman-Batman superhero was), I don’t think I took a breath for several hours, or even days,” said Packer. “To say it was huge is an understatement. It’s so far out of my reference of possibility, that it will always be a cause to exult. And it serves [as a reminder] to all artists to have faith, take chances, be proud and just keep doing it.”

“Also, I truly do think Marc Jacobs is a great designer, and I’ve always loved his corner window [on Bleecker], which is art,” added Packer. “So, to me, that it’s Marc Jacobs in particular is what makes it all so Cinderella. And, as you know, he’s currently the hottest American designer, which makes this much more thrilling than if, say, Starbucks or Chanel were supporting my work. To be able to say, ‘You can pick my stuff up at Marc Jacobs stores nationwide.’ Wow.”

Wow, indeed.

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