Jacobs Turns Fashion Upside Down

Regulars at Marc Jacobs's New York shows are accustomed to waiting an hour or more at the New York State Armoury before the lights are finally dimmed. Even so, VIP guests were surprised to receive calls, shortly before the scheduled start of 9pm, telling them not to arrive till 11pm because the designer was apparently still working on 32 out of the 56 looks. At 11.05pm Ravel's Bolero signaled the start of the show. Or, rather, it signaled the end: this was a show themed around subverting the norms of fashion, and was staged backwards, so that Jacobs ran out on to the catwalk and took his bow first, with the models - in reverse order to the program - following. It is a measure of the indulgence granted to Jacobs that he was greeted with warm applause.

When he is in a darker mood Jacobs likes to riff on abstract themes. Most famously, he skewed notions of smart and scruffy to create designer grunge.This time he played with notions of being dressed or undressed, with trompe l'oeil underwear printed on to sheer Georgette slips, and sedate silk shirt dresses with sections missing, peepshow style.

The artistic disdain for commerce - will the dress billed as "two thirds of a satin gown" be priced accordingly? - was counterbalanced by a catwalk sagging under the weight of Jacobs's trademark quilted handbags, whose £800 price tag includes a tidy profit margin.