SKINNY jeans

Dear Marc Jacobs,

Will you be my valentine? I know you're busy with New York Fashion Week this month and all, but hear me out. I think we can make it work. We'll divide our time between Paris and New York, we'll see other men, we'll
wear tutus and carry expensive handbags. You can keep designing up a storm for the folks at Louis Vuitton and the Marc brand, and I'll keep on fawning. Perfect.

I did think for a while there, though, that I might have to break up with you. The announcement of Victoria Beckham as your Spring/Summer 08 ad campaign clothes horse seemed like an obstacle that no love could surmount. 'No!' we squealed 'Posh isn't a Marc girl! Marc girls are cool! Marc girls are mavericks!' Previous alumni Meg White, Sofia
Coppola, Chloe Sevigny; yes, yes, and yes. Tandem announcement of M.I.A. as the Marc by Marc mannequin: a thousand times and twenty, yes. But Victoria Beckham - pop culture dress-up doll par excellence, and poster
child for conspicuous consumption and self-commodification? Prosaic Spice, the ultimate fashion follower and perennial parasitic sidekick:
the inconsequential Goose to M.I.A.'s Maverick? It was almost enough to
prompt a metaphorical walk out. I'd have burnt my merchandise if I
didn't consider it as I would my children.

But see, you had it covered. On the release of the first Juergen Teller
shots, I got it. Nothing but Posh's Fake Baked-legs sticking out of an
MJ carrier bag; and a life size box opened to reveal a Beckham dummy
staring off into the middle distance. A swarm of media attention and a
pithy comment on Brand Beckham™; whether or not Vicky's in on the joke,
I can hear you laughing.

And that's another reason you're the one for me: that GSOH. From that
line of 'Marc Jackass' shirts, to your epic, much-Googled, 'Camel Toe'
Halloween costume; you're always keeping things light and bringing the
funny. It's all about attitude, and the Marc approach is that fashion is
fun and, crucially, not just for the broads with the gold cards.
Because in between clipping those four-figure price tags to your Louis
Vuitton handbags, you're carefully designing $8 bracelets and $3 pencil
sharpeners for those of us whose taste surpasses our wallets.

Yes, outside of the clothes, the clothes; there's more that maketh the
man. So it wasn't the pear-shaped watch on a chain, or purple quilted
handbag I can fit my house in that sealed the deal, mon cherie, it's
this: asked by an eager Elle journalist, pen poised, what women should
be wearing in the season to come, you simply replied: "I think they
should wear whatever they like." Oh oui, Marc, je t'aime.