The short facts
Marc Jacobs, an American house based in New York, has been owned since September 2026 by a partnership of WHP Global and G-III Apparel Group. The line-up stretches to 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 Week calendar. SoHo got the first store in 1997, and designer bags its flagship today stands at 127–129 Prince Street in Manhattan. The designer, the labels, the corporate structure and the range are the subject of this marc jacobs overview, as they stood in late September 2026. The singular search phrase “marc jacob overview” sends plenty of readers here, who should note the correct spelling carries a plural, Jacobs.
- Founder and Creative Director: Marc Jacobs, born in New York City in 1963
- Founding year: 1984, the date the brand’s own timeline gives
- Headquarters: 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 in use: Marc Jacobs, The Marc Jacobs, Heaven by Marc Jacobs
The designer in brief
Marc Jacobs was born in New York City in 1963 and studied at Parsons School of Design, graduating in 1984. While a student he became the youngest ever winner of the CFDA’s Perry Ellis Award for New Fashion Talent. Perry Ellis took him on in 1988 and in November 1992 he 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” falls in 1993 and a redux is listed in 2018. In 1997 he became the first creative director of Louis Vuitton, where 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
Out of the four names that matter in the history of the Marc Jacobs brand, three are still in use. The main line uses the plain name and holds the runway collections and the priciest products. 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. Heaven by Marc Jacobs stands separate from them, with its own art direction and price band. 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 is where the runway business sits and where every other label began. 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. First seen on the 2022 runway, The Sack Bag joined the range, 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
Marc by Marc Jacobs launched in 2001 as the diffusion line, aimed at a younger, cheaper end of the market. It ran fourteen years and was how plenty of shoppers first encountered the designer. Discontinued in 2015, after the fall and winter collection, the line 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 find the label on resale pieces from that period, the only place it now exists. It matters that you recognize the name, because it is routinely confused with the sub-label that replaced it.
The Marc Jacobs
The Marc Jacobs was unveiled 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. This is the line most casual buyers actually meet, since it holds the canvas totes and much of the everyday accessory range. The company still marks those products online as part of “THE collection,” the quickest way to identify one. The definite article is no accident and is capitalized, so it is written 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. In the company’s own framing it is a gateway into what it terms the omniverse of Marc Jacobs subversion, 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 covered 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. 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.
Ownership and who runs it
The same answer served the question of who owns Marc Jacobs for nearly thirty years, before it changed in 2026. LVMH bought its majority stake in 1997, the year Jacobs took up the Louis Vuitton role, and the exact percentage was never published. LVMH announced the 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. Under that 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. Business of Fashion and WWD put the transaction at roughly $925 million, 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.
| Year in question | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1963 | New York City sees the birth of Marc Jacobs |
| 1984 | Parsons graduation; the brand timeline dates the founding here |
| 1988 | Begins work at Perry Ellis |
| 1992 to 1993 | Grunge collection, then exit from Perry Ellis |
| 1997 | Louis Vuitton role starts; LVMH buys a majority stake; SoHo store opens |
| 2001 | Marc by Marc Jacobs comes to market |
| 2007 | Launch of the Daisy fragrance |
| 2010 | Bookmarc opens its doors on Bleecker Street |
| 2013 | The final Louis Vuitton collection comes in October |
| 2014 | Launch of Marc Jacobs Beauty |
| 2015 | End of Marc by Marc Jacobs |
| 2019 | The Marc Jacobs and The Tote Bag both launch; watches end after November |
| 2020 | Heaven by Marc Jacobs goes live in September |
| 2026 | WHP Global and G-III finish 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. Early February holds the one show of the year, 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. 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 is on sale today
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. Outside bags the offer runs to ready-to-wear, shoes, wallets, jewelry, eyewear and children’s products, 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 goes back 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.