Marc Jacobs is officially remaining at Louis Vuitton, explaining he still has “so much more to do” at the Paris-based fashion house, and will not move to Christian Dior.
Interviewed by The Telegraph, Jacobs readdressed past rumors that he would be replacing former head designer John Galliano at Dior, after Galliano was fired in March 2011 following his arrest at a Paris bar for racist and anti-Semitic behavior. While Jacobs was flattered to be considered by LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault for the position, the designer reaffirmed his status at Louis Vuitton, arguing he still has plenty of ambitions for the fashion house he has helmed since 1997.
“It’s a great honor to be considered, and Mr Arnault is a super intelligent man and a very smart man and it was certainly a very great honor for him to know that I was capable — and not only capable but that I am someone that he would have wanted for the job.
“But I am very happy to be here. There is so much more left to do and building Louis Vuitton into a fashion company is something nobody else can say they really started,” stated Jacobs. “I am really happy and I do love working here. I just think there is so much more to do.”
Just some of the expansion to come from Louis Vuitton includes the label’s first standalone fine jewelry store, which will be unveiled in Paris’s Place Vendome this month. It was also announced January 4 that the brand is planning its first fragrance since the 1930s, with master perfumer Jacques Cavallier-Belletrud heading up the scent development.
“Perfume is something I wanted to do here since the beginning,” said Jacobs. “I don’t know when it will be launched but we are in the process of working on it – there was a perfume back in the Twenties, a very niche little thing.”
