THE POLITICS OF FASHION GRANDSTANDING: THE MARC JACOBS SS25 COURAGE AMERICAN ARMOUR ANATOMY SHOW
BY NICOLE ZENIOU
Marc Jacobs has never shied away from making blunt political or social statements with his fashion shows, taking the opportunity of each runway to address issues such as the pandemic (AW21), the US abortion ruling (AW22) and more recently, for his SS25 “Courage” collection, the second Trump administration.
Amidst the flurry of executive orders and official upheavals shape-shifting the American dream as we had known it, Marc Jacobs presented a collection of padded body armour exploring the idea of bravery in tumultuous times via an uncompromising reconsideration of form.
Fashion braces for impact: Courage for an Untitled Future
Jacobs has been very vocal about where he stands politically throughout US President Donald Trump first election in 2016, even vowing that he would never dress America’s First Lady Melania Trump in his designs - joined then by other US designers such as Tom Form. He had told WWD, “I have no interest whatsoever in dressing Melania Trump. […] Personally, I’d rather put my energy into helping out those who will be hurt by Trump and his supporters.”
Building on that same sentiment, of protecting the (fashion) crowds from the re-election aftermath, his latest spring 2025 collection appropriately named “Courage” presented at the New York Public Library just two weeks after the US presidential inauguration, was an ode to a world in flux that braces for impact. “Guided by heart, humility and gratitude, I have come to understand that fear is not my enemy - it is a necessary companion to creativity, authenticity, integrity, and life,” read the show notes.
They accompanied a line up that referenced Rei Kawakubo’s Comme des Garçons SS97 revolutionary “tumour” - “lumps and bumps” collection, which made notorious use of padding but subverted its conventional application. It was work that Rei Kawakubo continued to explore throughout her career. In fact, very much in line with Marc Jacobs’s theme of courage, this year’s SS25 Comme des Garçons collection was entitled, “Untitled Future: Confronting an uncertain world with air and transparency could signify a kind of hope.” It notably contained dresses that resembled an abstract stack of fluffy white clouds, among other forms. On both - creatively interdepent - fronts, is this a courageous air of hope?
American armour anatomy for a world hanging by a thread
Borrowing from Rei Kawakubo’s historically amplified use of padding and play with expanded proportions, Jacobs opted to create the feeling of safety and security in a world of contraction and elimination of basic human rights. The use of padding also helps the designer - narrator tell the story that not all courage is the same - it expands and contracts according to one’s “proportions”. The collection aptly featured bulletproof “silhouettes of courage” which almost served as a compass to navigate this brave new world. There was use of extreme hyperbole, a challenging of silhouettes into existence - see foam inserts, oddly placed darts, inflating shapes, pillowy inflated and deflated volumes - preparing us all for an upcoming end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it that may lie ahead.“With precious freedom, we dream and imagine without limitation, daring to be vulnerable in the face of criticism and failure, not to escape from reality but to help navigate, understand and confront it.”
But more than a “satnav” for consumers the collection serves also a “satnav” for an industry that is being threatened by the new wave of uncertainty deriving from the US policies under the new administration. Specifically, those that greatly impact the fashion industry and brands to the very core - the tariffs that threaten to disrupt global supply chains, the luxury market that is already experiencing a slowdown (the global personal luxury market reportedly lost some 50 million consumers last year), the active hostility towards LGBTQ+ workers that make a big part of the industry’s community. There are economic reasons behind this newfound necessity for a protection of all sorts, for an emergency exit route out. The collection thus serves as both a protection mechanism (pillowy contours) and a resistance mechanism (shoes with wildly uber-extended, elongated toes) to toe the line against those policies.
Fear must spur us into action
The bold and experimental designs of Marc Jacobs’s SS25 runway were strategically accompanied by Pat McGrath’s revolutionary beauty look featuring sequinned dots on models’ lips - a potential commentary on silencing voices in challenging times. Silence and powerlessness go hand in hand, and silence is very much related to fear. Is it then that in times of great fear we need to summon up great courage?
To conclude, in this light and in a time of global uncertainty Marc Jacob’s SS25 off NYFW-schedule unbridled six-minute lighting fast ode-to-courage library runway (notoriously his AW23 runway show lasted exactly three minutes), feels more like a creative call to action urging the crowds to expand beyond the limiting constraints proposed by the forms and functions of being largely thrust upon us. Via a collection where courage serves more than just a design principle, where exaggeration is a statement and where this is a story of both vulnerability and defiance.
Bungalow 28 is a tech and creative agency dedicated to fashion, luxury and cultural brands worldwide.