The essentials
Marc Jacobs is an American fashion house based in New York, owned since September 2026 by a partnership of WHP Global and G-III Apparel Group. Ready-to-wear, bags, leather goods, shoes, jewelry, eyewear and fragrance form the catalogue, with handbags as its core. Collections arrive roughly once a year, in early February, outside the official New York Fashion Week calendar. SoHo took the first store in marc jacobs tote bag sale 1997, and its flagship today is at 127–129 Prince Street in Manhattan. The designer, the labels, the corporate set-up and the range are what this marc jacobs overview covers, as they stood in late September 2026. Readers who arrive from the singular search phrase “marc jacob overview” should note the correct spelling carries a plural, Jacobs.
- Founder and Creative Director: Marc Jacobs, who was born in New York City in 1963
- Founding year: 1984, by the brand’s own timeline
- Base: New York City
- Owners since 1 September 2026: WHP Global and G-III Apparel Group
- Chief Executive: Eric Marechalle, who has held the post since 2017
- Active labels: Marc Jacobs, The Marc Jacobs, Heaven by Marc Jacobs
The founder
Marc Jacobs was born in New York City in 1963 and studied at Parsons School of Design, graduating in 1984. Still a student, he became the youngest ever winner of the CFDA’s Perry Ellis Award for New Fashion Talent. His Perry Ellis years started in 1988 and in November 1992 he showed the grunge-inflected spring 1993 collection that made his name and cost him the job. The “Original Grunge Collection” is dated on his own timeline to 1993 and a redux is listed in 2018. His Louis Vuitton appointment came in 1997, the first creative director the house had, and he created its first ready-to-wear and ran artist collaborations with Takashi Murakami, Stephen Sprouse, Richard Prince and Yayoi Kusama. The final Louis Vuitton collection he showed came in October 2013, Nicolas Ghesquière succeeded him, and he remains Founder and Creative Director of his own company.
The labels under a single name
Four names count in the history of the Marc Jacobs brand, and three are still in use. Runway collections and the priciest products live on the main line, which carries the plain name. Fourteen years of a diffusion line, Marc by Marc Jacobs, sat below it. That space above the price floor is held by The Marc Jacobs, created to occupy it. With its own art direction and price band, Heaven by Marc Jacobs stands separate from them. Offshoots that are not fashion labels are also run by the company: Bookmarc, Marc Jacobs Beauty and the Bark Jacobs dog line.
Marc Jacobs
The main line is the runway business and the source of every other label. Its bag categories run to The Tote Bag, The Snapshot and The Scene, with groupings for crossbody, mini, shoulder bags and totes. The Tote Bag heads the families by size, launched in 2019 and reinvented each season. The Snapshot takes a camera-bag shape the brand says was conceived in a Parisian studio with its design team. A first showing on the 2022 runway introduced The Sack Bag, and The Scene now has its own place in the site navigation. The company puts down to Jacobs the line “No more Birkins, only Tote Bags,” framing it as a rejection of exclusivity rather than a pursuit of it.
Marc by Marc Jacobs
Marc by Marc Jacobs came out in 2001 as the diffusion line, aimed at a younger, cheaper end of the market. It lasted fourteen years, and for many shoppers it was the first encounter with the designer. The line ended in 2015, after the fall and winter collection, and was folded back into the main line. What that did was remove a distinct price tier from the business rather than simply rename it. Buyers still come across the label on resale pieces from that period, the only place it now exists. Routine confusion with the sub-label that replaced it is why recognising the name matters.
The Marc Jacobs
The Marc Jacobs was announced in December 2018 and launched for pre-fall 2019, about four years after the diffusion line closed. That vacated tier is what this lower-priced sub-label, descended in function from Marc by Marc Jacobs, was built to reoccupy. In practice this is the line most casual buyers meet, holding the canvas totes and much of the everyday accessory range. The company still tags those products online as part of “THE collection,” the quickest way to identify one. Because the definite article is deliberate and capitalized, it is written The Marc Jacobs. Confusing it with the main line explains much of the price confusion around the label.
Heaven by Marc Jacobs
Heaven by Marc Jacobs launched in September 2020 under art director Ava Nirui, built around youth subculture and a gender-fluid, do-it-yourself sensibility. The company describes it as a gateway into what it terms the omniverse of Marc Jacobs subversion, and quotes Jacobs saying that “Heaven is a world within our Marc Jacobs world”. On price it sits well under the main line, with bags around $150 to $250 and tees from about $65 on the US site in September 2026. The range held roughly 153 products, and standalone stores operate in Los Angeles, New York and London. Collaborations with artists turn up in product names, including a David Rappeneau shoulder bag listed at about $175. Nirui left, as reported in January 2026, with no successor named, so the label’s current creative leadership is not confirmed by the brand.
The owners and the leadership
The question of who owns Marc Jacobs had one answer for nearly thirty years before it changed in 2026. LVMH took a majority stake in 1997, the year Jacobs took up the Louis Vuitton role, and the exact percentage was never published. LVMH set out a definitive agreement to sell the brand to WHP Global and G-III Apparel Group on 14 May 2026; the deal closed on 1 September 2026. The structure splits the business in two: a fifty-fifty joint venture owns the intellectual property with WHP Global leading licensing, while G-III operates the wholesale, retail and e-commerce business under a long-term license from that venture. Business of Fashion and WWD placed the transaction at roughly $925 million, but LVMH disclosed no value, so that figure is press-reported rather than official. As Founder and Creative Director, Marc Jacobs continues, the closing announcement committing to continuity of the creative vision, collections and shows; Eric Marechalle has been chief executive since 2017.
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1963 | Birth of Marc Jacobs in New York City |
| 1984 | Leaves Parsons with a degree; brand timeline dates the founding here |
| 1988 | Begins work at Perry Ellis |
| 1992 to 1993 | Grunge collection, followed by his exit from Perry Ellis |
| 1997 | The Louis Vuitton job starts; LVMH acquires a majority stake; the SoHo store opens |
| 2001 | Debut of Marc by Marc Jacobs |
| 2007 | Daisy fragrance goes on sale |
| 2010 | Bookmarc arrives on Bleecker Street |
| 2013 | Last Louis Vuitton collection, in October |
| 2014 | Launch of Marc Jacobs Beauty |
| 2015 | Marc by Marc Jacobs comes to an end |
| 2019 | The Marc Jacobs and The Tote Bag both launch; watches end after November |
| 2020 | Heaven by Marc Jacobs launches in September |
| 2026 | WHP Global and G-III finish the LVMH acquisition on 1 September |
The showing rhythm
The company does not follow the four-season calendar most houses of its size still use. Once a year, in early February, it shows, a few days before New York Fashion Week opens and deliberately off schedule. The collections are seasonless and named for the year, which is why they are called runway collections rather than spring or fall lines. Recent dates were 2 February 2024 at the Park Avenue Armory, 3 February 2025 at the New York Public Library, and February 2026 at the Armory again. The 2026 show, titled “Memory. Loss.”, was read by trade coverage as a turn toward wearability. It is not confirmed whether it also showed during September 2026 fashion week, and on the established pattern the next outing falls in February 2027.
What the brand sells now
Handbags sit at the commercial core, with 312 products in the full bag listing on the US site in September 2026, across canvas, jacquard, leather, denim and seasonal fabrics. The entry point is canvas totes at about $150 and leather totes reach about $598, while The Dakota Tote sits at roughly $798, all figures that vary by country and change without notice. Outside bags the offer runs to ready-to-wear, shoes, wallets, jewelry, eyewear and children’s products, plus a permanent discount section called MARCDOWN. Daisy started the fragrance business in 2007, named after Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby. Marc Jacobs Beauty started in 2014 and now operates under Coty, which relaunched the line in 2026, while watches were discontinued after November 2019 and carry no valid warranty. The physical estate leans toward discount, since the store locator listed 103 locations in September 2026, of which 46 were boutiques and 57 outlets, with Regent Street in London the only boutique in Europe.