Once again, Marc Jacobs is taking us through the pearly gates, unveiling his latest Heaven collection in a campaign shot by returning collaborator Harley Weir. This time around, though, things are looking a whole lot darker.
The AW21 visuals trade out last season’s images of Kate Moss lounging on a sunny patch of grass for Iris Law, Dazed cover star Adut Akech, and Dazed 100er Teezo Touchdown — all maniacal smiles, devil-horn hair, and yellow, snakelike eyes. Kirsten Dunst also makes an appearance, not as a model, but in stills from Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides, which are plastered on shirts, baby tees, hoodies, and lucky charm-laden handbags, for a healthy dose of teenage angst.
These cinematic references are a “celebration of one of (Jacobs’) best friends Sofia Coppola”, explains Heaven collaborator Ava Nirui, noting that they are just one of the “many deep cuts from the Marc Jacobs archive”.
Of course, the recontextualised pop culture references don’t stop there. The collection also draws on the work of Katherine Bernhardt, a Brooklyn-based artist whose own paintings include an eclectic mix of cartoon characters and brand logos. Bernhardt’s cartoonish depictions of Garfield and E.T. run throughout the collection — catch Adut Akech wearing a ode to the alien in black and blue knitwear — alongside the label’s signature two-headed Teddy bear.
Needless to say, the playful paintings are a perfect match for the youthful, TikTok-adjacent aesthetic of Heaven, which launched as a satellite to Jacobs’ namesake label in the middle of lockdown last year, drawing on Nirui’s bootlegging background.
“When I think of Heaven, I think about childlike wonder,” Nirui adds. “I get nostalgic thinking about experiencing things for the first time – the euphoria that brings us pure bliss. It’s the feeling we hope emanates from the line and collection – a pure sense of discovery and learning.”
Take a look at the campaign in the gallery above, and head to Marc Jacobs’ website to find his latest Heaven collection, while it’s still in stock.
