The day before Wednesday’s soft opening of Marc Jacobs’ New York pop-up store — the preferred in-house word is “residence” — the space at 655 Madison bustles. It also reveals varying degrees of readiness. The major bait, 52 ice-cream pastel mannequins (two each in one of the 26 grunge looks Jacobs re-created verbatim from his spring 1993 collection for Perry Ellis) are fully installed at street level in all their silk-plaid, Birkenstocked, knit-capped, Robert Crumbed glory.
That panorama is intentionally disorienting, with infinity mirrors multiplying the mannequin troops. Most of the figures face outward, toward the room’s perimeter. When the window boards are removed at some point tonight, the mannequins will form the window display.
“Because the space is like a glass box, when you come into the store, it should feel like you’re part of the window,” says Faye McLeod, visual creative director, LVMH, who worked with Jacobs on developing the store design. “It’s not like vitrine, vitrine, vitrine. Instead, you’re part of the grunge collection.”
The stair risers feature LED lighting with rotating brand signage — Marc Jacobs, Redux Grunge, Daisy — and on the wall opposite the door, an 80-inch screen runs grunge-related videos, both of the new marketing variety
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