Marc Jacobs
Long intimidated by the art world, Marc Jacobs didn’t start collecting until five years ago—and now he just can’t stop. Inside the designer’s Paris apartment.
1
When Marc Jacobs moved to Paris in 1996 for Louis Vuitton, he lived in a hotel and later a rental. It was only when he saw a three-story garden apartment on the Champ de Mars (then owned by designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac) that Jacobs felt an urge to put down roots. Here, Jacobs in his library with Ed Ruscha’s Heaven, 1986, and a sixties Dominique table.
2
Jacobs’s decorator, Paul Fortune, is known for a refined style that combines old-school elegance with a certain modern ease. He and Jacobs decided to respect the apartment’s French formalism while leaving room for an eclectic mix of old and new. Here, in the living room, Ed Ruscha’s Peach, 1964, John Currin’s The Go-See, 1999, and a Lalanne sheep sculpture.
3
Jacobs says he buys what he likes (works that tends towards the figurative, the graphic) and hangs it where he can see it. “Typical addict behavior,” says the designer with a half smile. “I just got this bug. I started going to galleries, and I kind of went mad.” On the upstairs landing, Damien Hirst’s Paracetamol, 2004–05, and Richard Prince’s Island Nurse, 2002
4
Over the past year and a half, Jacobs has completely transformed himself from the inside out. Gone are the stringy hair, the plastic Seventies glasses and the baggy, chubby-guy sweatshirts. It’s only now, while sporting defined triceps and a tan, that he can say, “I actually don’t mind how I look.” On the credenza in the den is Sean Landers’s Mr. Rabbit, 2003.
5
Jacobs in the courtyard off the garden-level office, with his two dogs, Alfred and Daisy, and two Lalanne frog chairs
6
Jacobs says he no longer views being single as a curse. “I mean, I like to have sex, and I like to go out on dates, even dates that don’t work out. But I don’t feel the need to be with one person all the time. it doesn’t feel like before. It’s not going to complete me or anything.” Here, the downstairs guest room, with Richard Prince’s Richard and Linda, 2005.
7
John Currin’s Bra Shop, 1997, is one of several portraits in the master bedroom. “I just like waking up in the company of all these odd people,” says Jacobs. Among the Elizabeth Peyton paintings in the sitting room, left, is a portrait of the designer. Peyton has been a close friend of the designer’s since they met at a 2002 opening in Paris.
