At this point, it would be unwise for any brand to ignore the power of social media. It’s a necessary aspect of marketing, selling and communicating — especially for a lifestyle brand like Marc Jacobs, which has a strong social media presence. But it seems that the designer isn’t too keen on it.
“I am so appalled by the whole social media thing,” Jacobs told Suzy Menkes in a recently-published interview for Vogue U.K. “I don’t get it, it doesn’t appeal to me, neither does a computer, or working on a laptop.” He adds: “I am just not of that generation. I get it the allure of it, but it just doesn’t appeal to me.”
Interesting, considering both of Jacobs’ brands often use social media to boost visibility and engage with customers. Consider the brand’s “Tweet Shop,” which turned customers’ tweets into currency, allowing them to get their hands on Marc Jacobs trinkets. The shop, as Glamour U.K. pointed out, had a “social media-friendly vibe.” Beyond that, for the past two seasons, Marc by Marc Jacobs has chosen its campaign models through the #CastMeMarc Instagram contest.
For someone who is so fundamentally appalled by social media, it is also quite interesting that he would choose Kendall Jenner to walk in his show and to appear in his main label’s Spring 2015 campaign. Kendall’s modeling success is believed to have much to do with her enormous social media following and her extremely social media savvy family.
But perhaps we can chalk his flip-flopping up to the inspiration for his Fall 2015 collection, Diana Vreeland. “It’s not that she couldn’t make up her mind. She was terribly decisive. It’s just that she changed her mind a day later,” he said of the legendary editrix. “She got tired of something she was obsessed with, and I think that is what fashion is. You don’t know what you want until you see it, and then when you’ve got it you sort of want something else. That’s what keeps the whole thing going.”
[via Vogue UK]
