The short facts
An American fashion house based in New York, Marc Jacobs has been owned since September 2026 by a partnership of WHP Global and G-III Apparel Group. Its range covers ready-to-wear, bags, leather goods, shoes, jewelry, eyewear and fragrance, with handbags as its core. Collections arrive roughly once a year, in early February, outside the official New York Fashion marc jacobs handbags Week calendar. Since the first SoHo store opened in 1997, the flagship has come to be at 127–129 Prince Street in Manhattan. What follows in this marc jacobs overview is the designer, the labels, the corporate structure and the range as they stood in late September 2026. The singular search phrase “marc jacob overview” brings in plenty of readers, who should note the correct spelling carries a plural, Jacobs.
- Founder and Creative Director: Marc Jacobs, a native of New York City born in 1963
- Founding year: 1984, the date the brand’s own timeline gives
- Head office: New York City
- Owners since 1 September 2026: WHP Global together with G-III Apparel Group
- Chief Executive: Eric Marechalle, in post since 2017
- Labels still running: Marc Jacobs, The Marc Jacobs, Heaven by Marc Jacobs
The man himself
Marc Jacobs came into the world in New York City in 1963 and trained at Parsons School of Design, graduating in 1984. He had not yet left college when 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. Louis Vuitton made him its first creative director in 1997, and there he created its first ready-to-wear and ran artist collaborations with Takashi Murakami, Stephen Sprouse, Richard Prince and Yayoi Kusama. He showed his last Louis Vuitton collection in October 2013, was succeeded by Nicolas Ghesquière, and remains Founder and Creative Director of his own company.
The labels that share one name
Four names are worth knowing in the history of the Marc Jacobs brand, and three are still in use. The plain name belongs to the main line, which holds the runway collections and the priciest products. Below it sat a diffusion line, Marc by Marc Jacobs, for fourteen years. Just above the price floor sits The Marc Jacobs, created to occupy that space. Heaven by Marc Jacobs sits apart, with its own art direction and price band. Extensions that are not fashion labels also run under the company: Bookmarc, Marc Jacobs Beauty and the Bark Jacobs dog line.
Marc Jacobs
The main line is both the runway business and the root of every other label. Bag categories cover The Tote Bag, The Snapshot and The Scene, plus groupings for crossbody, mini, shoulder bags and totes. Launched in 2019 and reinvented each season, The Tote Bag is the largest family. The shape of The Snapshot is a camera bag, and the brand says it was conceived in a Parisian studio with its design team. The Sack Bag made its debut on the 2022 runway, and The Scene now has its own place in the site navigation. Framed as a rejection of exclusivity rather than a pursuit of it, the line “No more Birkins, only Tote Bags,” is attributed by the company to Jacobs.
Marc by Marc Jacobs
The diffusion line, Marc by Marc Jacobs, launched in 2001 as a line aimed at a younger, cheaper end of the market. Fourteen years of trading made it the way many shoppers first encountered the designer. Discontinued in 2015, after the fall and winter collection, the line was folded back into the main line. Rather than a simple renaming, it took a distinct price tier out of the business. Buyers meet the label today only on resale pieces from that period, the only place it now exists. Recognising the name matters, because it is routinely confused with the sub-label that replaced it.
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. Descended in function from Marc by Marc Jacobs, it is a lower-priced sub-label built to reoccupy the tier the company had vacated. Most casual buyers meet this line rather than the others, since it holds the canvas totes and much of the everyday accessory range. Online, those products are still tagged as part of “THE collection,” the quickest way to identify one. Capitalized on purpose, the definite article gives the written form The Marc Jacobs. Mix it up with the main line and you get 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. A doorway into what the company terms the omniverse of Marc Jacobs subversion is how it is described, and Jacobs is quoted 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. Artist collaborations show up in product names, including a David Rappeneau shoulder bag listed at about $175. In January 2026 Nirui’s departure was reported with no successor named, so the label’s current creative leadership is not confirmed by the brand.
Who owns it and who runs it
For nearly thirty years the question of who owns Marc Jacobs had one answer, before it changed in 2026. The LVMH majority stake dates to 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 business is split in two by the structure: 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. A figure of roughly $925 million came from Business of Fashion and WWD, but LVMH disclosed no value, so it 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.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1963 | Marc Jacobs born in New York City |
| 1984 | Graduation from Parsons; the brand timeline places the founding here |
| 1988 | Joins Perry Ellis |
| 1992 to 1993 | Grunge collection, then the parting with Perry Ellis |
| 1997 | The Louis Vuitton job starts; LVMH acquires a majority stake; the SoHo store opens |
| 2001 | Marc by Marc Jacobs goes on sale |
| 2007 | The Daisy fragrance launches |
| 2010 | Bookmarc sets up on Bleecker Street |
| 2013 | The closing Louis Vuitton collection, shown in October |
| 2014 | Marc Jacobs Beauty comes to market |
| 2015 | Marc by Marc Jacobs is discontinued |
| 2019 | The Marc Jacobs and The Tote Bag launch; watches end after November |
| 2020 | Heaven by Marc Jacobs launches in September |
| 2026 | WHP Global and G-III close the LVMH acquisition on 1 September |
The showing rhythm
The company does not work to 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 take the name of the year, which is why they are called runway collections rather than spring or fall lines. Recent outings ran on 2 February 2024 at the Park Avenue Armory, on 3 February 2025 at the New York Public Library, and in February 2026 at the Armory again. Coverage in the trade press of the 2026 show, titled “Memory. Loss.”, read it as a turn toward wearability. No confirmation exists on whether it also showed during September 2026 fashion week, and on the established pattern the next outing falls in February 2027.
What is on sale today
Handbags form 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. Canvas totes open at about $150 and leather totes climb to about $598, while The Dakota Tote sits at roughly $798, all figures that vary by country and change without notice. Ready-to-wear, shoes, wallets, jewelry, eyewear and children’s products sit beyond bags, plus a permanent discount section called MARCDOWN. Fragrance goes back to Daisy in 2007, named after Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby. Marc Jacobs Beauty dates to 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.
