Marc Jacobs says “Fashion is not art”

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New York magazine reports here that Marc Jacobs recently said that he would be interested in doing a reality TV show. Would he be willing to expose it all? You bet. According to the fashion designer, his program would be about: ‘Everything, all aspects of my life. I’m a shameless human being.’

One place you won’t find Jacobs’ dirty laundry is on a museum wall. He recently told me that he would never hang his designer wares in a hallowed hall. Here’s his take on fashion as art: ‘Fashion to me is not art because it is only valid if it is lived in and worn. I make clothes and bags and shoes for people to use, not to put up on a wall and look at. I think clothes in a museum are complete death. I have seen exhibitions of the clothes of Jackie Kennedy and I am not interested in her wardrobe. I am interested in the life and the women who wore those clothes.’

Always the provocateur, eh? I disagree with Jacobs on this issue. To me, fashion is as relevant of an art form as film or sculpture. Clothes are such a direct commentary on culture. I wonder if Jacobs has seen this sculpture -- courtesy of the Saatchi Gallery in London--by Yuken Teruya. The artist takes consumerist symbols, like this Marc Jacobs shopping bag, and creates intricate paper sculptures to convey its effect on our forests.

Photo credits: Marc Jacobs, wireimage.com; Marc Jacobs by Yuken Teruya, Saatchi Gallery