My love for Marc Jacobs began years ago. It started with a handbag. The quilted Stam. Named after Canada’s own Jessica Stam, this purse stole my heart with it’s classic design, soft pillowy leather and funky gold hardware, kisslock and chain included. (Fun fact: Jacobs rereleases the Stam every year, due to popular demand, in a myriad of colors, fabrics and textured leathers. Black is still most popular, but Petrol Blue is my current favorite.) I still remember the first time I felt this leather masterpiece in the accessories department of Holt Renfrew. I must have been about seventeen years old. While I couldn’t fathom how anyone my age could afford a piece of luggage with a $1600 price tag, I knew that one day, I would find a way. I suppose my mother would call this “retail delusion” or “living beyond your means”. But I knew that whatever my means, I needed him in my life. Marc.

Marc Jacobs was born in 1963 in NYC, to American Jewish parents. Studying at the prestigious Parsons, the New School of Design led to his fashion career as a prominent designer in the elite fashion world. He was the youngest designer to have ever been awarded the CFDA’s (The Council of Fashion Designers of America) Perry Ellis Award for New Fashion Talent in 1987 after debuting his first Marc Jacobs collection in 1986. In addition to his own labels, Marc Jacobs and the diffusion line, Marc by Marc Jacobs, he has been the Creative Director of French major fashion house Louis Vuitton since 1997, launching their wildly popular grafittied line of classic monogram luggage and handbags. Jacobs brought life to Louis Vuitton. He made it fresh, shiny and new. And he did it in style, with his own quirky twist. Very successfully, I might add.

I’ve grown to love Jacobs as a designer and celebrity simply because unlike most designers (of his caliber and not), he is entirely without pretense. He is as real as it gets in a world of artificial. His collections are always a reflection of this. Revolutionizing ready-to-wear fashion, Jacobs is never merely concerned with aesthetics. His clothes are full of personality, wearability, fun and most importantly, sincerity. His vision extends beyond what is fashionable; he often draws inspirations from past eras, anywhere from the 50’s or the 80’s, as well as contemporary art and design, including animation. His work is always vibrant and genuine.

To me, he is the one designer who truly understands what people actually want to wear every day. His clothes, as he describes, are never “hot” (which I would disagree although I see the point he’s trying to make), because he believes that “… curiosity about sex is much more interesting than domination.”Jacobs has never tried to make someone look a certain way. He merely helps his customers discover a style of their own with fashion that is approachable and uncomplicated, although often amusingly cluttered.

Marc’s SS’10 collections for his own lines are quite different this year. The Marc Jacobs collection (above) presents barely there romantic looks in muted pastel shades and willowy fabrics, while Marc by Marc Jacobs (a select look, right) goes for a bolder look with ethnic prints reminiscent of African motifs in strong, vivid colors and daring, confident patterns. I admire his ability to take two fashion lines and produce two distinctly different, yet outwardly feminine and fashion forward looks within the same season. Pure innovation, pure Marc.

While my wallet and I will be looking at the more affordable Marc by Marc Jacobs label this spring/summer, there is always next year. And while the Stam is yet to find its way into my arms, last fall I purchased the sold out (hence this year reproduced) Classic Q Huge Hillier Hobo in Chestnut (pictured below). And my life, as a matter of fact, immediately seemed just a little brighter. Ok, a whole lot. My love for Marc continues.