The core facts
Marc Jacobs, an American fashion house based in New York, has been owned since September 2026 by a partnership of WHP Global and G-III Apparel Group. It offers ready-to-wear, bags, leather goods, shoes, jewelry, eyewear and fragrance, with handbags as its core. It stages a show roughly once a year, in early February, outside the official New York the mini bag marc jacobs Fashion Week calendar. After opening that first SoHo store 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. If you came in on the singular search phrase “marc jacob overview”, note that 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
- Home base: New York City
- Owners since 1 September 2026: the partnership of WHP Global and G-III Apparel Group
- Chief Executive: Eric Marechalle, who has held the post since 2017
- Labels in use: Marc Jacobs, The Marc Jacobs, Heaven by Marc Jacobs
The designer
Born in New York City in 1963 and trained at Parsons School of Design, Marc Jacobs graduated in 1984. The youngest ever winner of the CFDA’s Perry Ellis Award for New Fashion Talent, he won it while still a student. He went to Perry Ellis in 1988 and in November 1992 showed the grunge-inflected spring 1993 collection that made his name and cost him the job. According to his own timeline the “Original Grunge Collection” belongs to 1993 and a redux is listed in 2018. Louis Vuitton appointed 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. His last Louis Vuitton collection was shown in October 2013, he was succeeded by Nicolas Ghesquière, and he remains Founder and Creative Director of his own company.
The lines under one name
Across the history of the Marc Jacobs brand, four names matter, and three are still in use. The runway collections and the dearest products belong to the main line, which carries the plain name. Underneath it sat a diffusion line, Marc by Marc Jacobs, for fourteen years. Above the price floor is The Marc Jacobs, created to occupy that space. With its own art direction and price band, Heaven by Marc Jacobs stands separate from them. The company also runs extensions that are not fashion labels: Bookmarc, Marc Jacobs Beauty and the Bark Jacobs dog line.
Marc Jacobs
The main line holds the runway business and started every other label. The bag categories are The Tote Bag, The Snapshot and The Scene, plus groupings for crossbody, mini, shoulder bags and totes. The largest family is The Tote Bag, 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 line “No more Birkins, only Tote Bags,” is credited by the company to Jacobs, framing it as a rejection of exclusivity rather than a pursuit of it.
Marc by Marc Jacobs
Marc by Marc Jacobs launched 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. An end came for the line in 2015, after the fall and winter collection, when it was folded back into the main line. A distinct price tier was removed from the business by that move rather than simply renamed. Buyers meet the label today only on resale pieces from that period, the only place it now exists. Because it is routinely confused with the sub-label that replaced it, 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. It is a cheaper sub-label descended in function from Marc by Marc Jacobs, 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. The price confusion around the label is largely the result of mixing it up with the main line.
Heaven by Marc Jacobs
Heaven by Marc Jacobs started in September 2020 under art director Ava Nirui, built around youth subculture and a gender-fluid, do-it-yourself sensibility. The company calls it 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”. Prices sit well under the main line, with bags around $150 to $250 and tees from about $65 on the US site in September 2026. The catalogue stretched to roughly 153 products, and it runs standalone stores in Los Angeles, New York and London. Artist collaborations appear in product names, including a David Rappeneau shoulder bag listed at about $175. Nirui’s departure was reported in January 2026 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. A majority stake went to LVMH 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 arrangement 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. The transaction was put at roughly $925 million by Business of Fashion and WWD, but LVMH disclosed no value, so that figure is press-reported rather than official. Founder and Creative Director is still Marc Jacobs, with the closing announcement committing to continuity of the creative vision, collections and shows; Eric Marechalle has been chief executive since 2017.
| Date | The milestone |
|---|---|
| 1963 | Birth of Marc Jacobs in New York City |
| 1984 | Finishes at Parsons; the brand timeline dates the founding here |
| 1988 | Arrives at Perry Ellis |
| 1992 to 1993 | The grunge collection, followed by leaving Perry Ellis |
| 1997 | The Louis Vuitton role begins; LVMH takes a majority stake; the SoHo store opens |
| 2001 | Marc by Marc Jacobs launches |
| 2007 | Daisy fragrance arrives |
| 2010 | A Bookmarc store opens on Bleecker Street |
| 2013 | Last Louis Vuitton collection, in October |
| 2014 | Marc Jacobs Beauty arrives |
| 2015 | Marc by Marc Jacobs stops |
| 2019 | The Marc Jacobs and The Tote Bag arrive; watches end after November |
| 2020 | Heaven by Marc Jacobs goes live in September |
| 2026 | WHP Global and G-III close the LVMH acquisition on 1 September |
The showing rhythm
Unlike most houses of its size, the company does not follow the four-season calendar they still use. There is one show a year, in early February, a few days before New York Fashion Week opens and deliberately off schedule. Because the collections are seasonless and named for the year, they are called runway collections rather than spring or fall lines. Recent shows fell 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. Trade coverage of the 2026 show, titled “Memory. Loss.”, read it as a turn toward wearability. Whether it also showed during September 2026 fashion week remains unconfirmed, and on the established pattern the next outing falls in February 2027.
What the brand sells now
Handbags are 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. Starting at about $150 for canvas totes and reaching about $598, while The Dakota Tote sits at roughly $798, the prices are all figures that vary by country and change without notice. Beyond bags it covers ready-to-wear, shoes, wallets, jewelry, eyewear and children’s products, plus a permanent discount section called MARCDOWN. Fragrance dates 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. Discount dominates physical retail: 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.



