Despite having slept at 2am the night before, I made an effort to wake up at 7am yesterday morn to catch the Marc Jacobs livestream of the Spring/Summer 2013 show. The show was set to begin at 8pm EST (that’s 8am Malaysian time) and it’s a known fact that Marc Jacobs always begins all his shows on time, along with Louis Vuitton as well (since he is Creative Director).

The livestream began at 7:30 with Leandra Medine a.k.a. The Man Repeller hosting the pre-show interviews. Sporting the oversized Mad Hatter-esque fur hat from Marc Jacobs’s Fall/Winter 2012-13 collection that is rumoured to cost $6,000, Leandra did mini-interviews with Brad Goreski, Mr Mickey, Karen Elson, Hailee Steinfeld, Rachel Feinstein the set designer for MJ shows, Anna Dello Russo and Bryan Boy.

The lights dimmed and the show began smack on the dot at 8pm EST. And the first look probably caught everyone by surprise – a tee with black what seemed like bikini bottoms. The looks were all striped, thin metallic and big, thick, bold stripes, which, to be honest, I really wasn’t a fan of because they either reminded me of clowns outfits, the striped circus tents, or striped football jerseys. I know that the SS13 collection was supposed to be inspired by Edie Sedgwick, but a handful of the looks, too, sported the huge ruffled collars that, again, reminded me of well, clowns instead. Truth be told, I wasn’t blown away like I usually am (even when I don’t like the designs!) because MJ’s SS13 collection somehow felt less luxe (tough times, ahead maybe?) and more like it belonged on the Marc by Marc Jacobs runway rather than MJ runway.

Ok nuff said, now on to the bags!

The Verdict: Marc Jacobs’s SS13 bags seem to be of the structured, boxy sort. As a whole the collection felt rather retro, as though it was dug up from a time capsule, and reintroduced without being modernised. A little too old-fashioned for my taste, and if you had told me these were vintage bags from the 60s era, I’d have believed you. Yes, this was inspired by the Sedgwick-Twiggy era, but one could still make references to the bygone era but yet still update it just a little more. Perhaps the only bag I do like is the striped clutch (last photo above), but then again, it looks as if it belongs more in the MbMJ collection rather than MJ.

Bags aside, Marc usually blows everyone away with the set design. Remember the magical winter wonderland runway for Fall/Winter 2012-13? I was expecting an amazing runway, but this time it was just a tapered runway that merged into a point at the end – think of the universal “Play” button icon – with mirrored revolving panels. Instead of a final walkthrough, the mirrored panels flipped open like doors, and models emerged from that, and formed a rows in triangular formation. Sad to say, that THAT was my favourite part of the show. And no, I’m really not pulling a Simon Cowell on this one.

Images via Style.com