The starting facts

Marc Jacobs is an American fashion house based in New York, owned since September 2026 by a partnership of WHP Global and G-III Apparel Group. The product range stretches to ready-to-wear, bags, leather goods, shoes, jewelry, eyewear and fragrance, with handbags marc jacobs leather goods as its core. Shows come roughly once a year, in early February, outside the official New York Fashion Week calendar. Its first store opened in SoHo in 1997, and its flagship today is at 127–129 Prince Street in Manhattan. This marc jacobs overview covers 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.

1. Founder and Creative Director: Marc Jacobs, a New Yorker born in the city in 1963
2. Founding year: 1984, according to the brand’s own timeline
3. Base: New York City
4. Owners since 1 September 2026: WHP Global alongside G-III Apparel Group
5. Chief Executive: Eric Marechalle, in post since 2017
6. Labels still running: Marc Jacobs, The Marc Jacobs, Heaven by Marc Jacobs

The designer

Marc Jacobs was born in New York City in 1963 and studied at Parsons School of Design, graduating in 1984. The youngest ever winner of the CFDA’s Perry Ellis Award for New Fashion Talent, he collected it as a student. He was at Perry Ellis from 1988 and in November 1992 he showed the grunge-inflected spring 1993 collection that made his name and cost him the job. His own timeline dates the “Original Grunge Collection” to 1993 and lists a redux in 2018. His Louis Vuitton appointment came in 1997, the first creative director the house had, and he created its first ready-to-wear and ran artist collaborations with Takashi Murakami, Stephen Sprouse, Richard Prince and Yayoi Kusama. Nicolas Ghesquière succeeded him after he showed his last Louis Vuitton collection in October 2013, and he remains Founder and Creative Director of his own company.

The labels that share one name

Out of the four names that matter in the history of the Marc Jacobs brand, three are still in use. The plain name sits on the main line, which holds the runway collections and the priciest products. Below it a diffusion line, Marc by Marc Jacobs, sat for fourteen years. Above the price floor sits The Marc Jacobs, created to occupy that space. Apart from them stands Heaven by Marc Jacobs, with its own art direction and price band. Extensions that are not fashion labels are also run by the company: Bookmarc, Marc Jacobs Beauty and the Bark Jacobs dog line.

Marc Jacobs

The runway business is the main line, and every other label grew out of it. Its bag categories run to The Tote Bag, The Snapshot and The Scene, with groupings for crossbody, mini, shoulder bags and totes. The Tote Bag forms the largest family, launched in 2019 and reinvented each season. The Snapshot carries a camera-bag shape the brand says was conceived in a Parisian studio with its design team. The 2022 runway gave The Sack Bag its first outing, 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. Across fourteen years it was how many shoppers first came across 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. That removed a distinct price tier from the business rather than simply renaming it. Buyers meet the label today only on resale pieces from that period, the only place it now exists. Knowing the name matters, because it is routinely confused with the sub-label that replaced it.

The Marc Jacobs

The announcement came in December 2018 and The Marc Jacobs 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. Home to the canvas totes and much of the everyday accessory range, it is in practice the line most casual buyers meet. The company still marks those products online as part of “THE collection,” the quickest way to identify one. The definite article is intentional and capitalized, so it is written The Marc Jacobs. Much of the price confusion around the label comes from 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”. 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.

The owners and the leadership

The question of who owns Marc Jacobs had one answer 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. A definitive agreement to sell the brand to WHP Global and G-III Apparel Group was announced by LVMH on 14 May 2026; the deal closed on 1 September 2026. The structure divides 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. Business of Fashion and WWD both reported roughly $925 million for the transaction, but LVMH disclosed no value, so that figure is press-reported rather than official. Marc Jacobs continues as Founder and Creative Director, with the closing announcement committing to continuity of the creative vision, collections and shows; Eric Marechalle has been chief executive since 2017.

The showing rhythm

Most houses of its size still work to the four-season calendar, which the company does not follow. The single show lands in early February, a few days before New York Fashion Week opens and deliberately off schedule. The collections are seasonless and named for the year, which is why 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. The 2026 show, titled “Memory. Loss.”, was read by trade coverage 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

Commercially the core is handbags, 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. Daisy started the fragrance business in 2007, named after Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby. Marc Jacobs Beauty started in 2014 and now operates under Coty, which relaunched the line in 2026, while watches were discontinued after November 2019 and carry no valid warranty. Physical retail tilts toward discount: 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.