Marc Jacobs makes cutting-edge clothes, but he’s playing catch-up when it comes to building a fashion empire.
The 47-year-old designer, thought by many critics to be the most talented of his generation, said last week he’s ending a 16-year stint at the helm of Louis Vuitton to focus on his eponymous label.
With the backing of luxury magnate Bernard Arnault, boss of Paris-based LVMH, the Marc Jacobs brand is preparing to launch itself as a public company within the next three years.
Insiders are predicting the rise of a firm to inherit the mantle of dominance draped on aging brands like Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Donna Karan.
“You’re not talking about a mature business that’s topped out,” says Robert Burke, a New York-based luxury consultant, citing growth potential worldwide as Marc Jacobs expands into new product lines.
Nevertheless, the tattooed fashion artist has his work cut out for him. The volume of Marc Jacobs remains shy of the $1 billion mark, despite the fact that the designer has sold clothes under his name for more than 25 years.
By comparison, the namesake company of business-savvy designer Michael Kors cranked out upward of $2.2 billion in sales last year, having tripled its revenue over the two previous years. Kors’ company now commands a market value of more than $15 billion.
“Marc has been looking at what Michael did and thinking, ‘There’s no reason I can’t do that myself,’ ” said Franco De Rose, a Paris-based luxury investor. “There’s nobody that questions his design talent.”
But Jacobs, whose net worth is estimated at $100 million, has to clear a few hurdles as he looks to reach billionaire status, De Rose says. That’s partly because Jacobs has already tethered his fortunes to Arnault, whose LVMH operates the Marc Jacobs brand in addition to Louis Vuitton.
Jacobs and his longtime business partner Robert Duffy each own a third of the Marc Jacobs label, with the hard-charging Arnault controlling the rest. The trio’s business relationship is reportedly being revised as Jacobs seeks to grab more upside for himself.
Kors built his business with the help of Silas Chou and Lawrence Stroll, the shrewd duo who engineered the meteoric rise of Tommy Hilfiger in the 1990s.
As with Hilfiger, Chou and Stroll rapidly grew the Kors brand by focusing on the “affordable luxury” segment, even as the designer grew famous in the US as a judge on the TV-reality show “Project Runway.”
That’s a template that Marc Jacobs is expected to follow, with Arnault laying the groundwork over the next two years leading up to an IPO.