Marc Jacobs has confirmed the end of his Marc by Marc Jacobs line.
Marc Jacobs
It was first rumoured last week that the diffusion line was set to be discontinued and the fashion designer has now confirmed it will merge with his eponymous main collection, reports WWD.
Marc - who founded the spin-off label with Robert Duffy in 2001 to provide customers with a more affordable range said: "In a sense, we're starting at the beginning. The intention now is no different than when Robert [Duffy] and I started Marc by Marc Jacobs.
"We believed that fashion could exist at lots of different prices. It could be flip-flops for $30, a well-priced T-shirt; there could be an honesty and integrity in different types of clothes.
"It wasn't supposed to be a second line or the poor-relative-of. I'm sitting here in a $2,000 cashmere/silk sweatshirt hoodie that we've made for 15 years and Adidas track pants and a cotton shirt from American Apparel, and I have a Prada fur coat upstairs. I think as myself as a fashion customer, and I know on a daily basis I will wear everything from American Apparel to Adidas to Marc Jacobs to Prada. I love that mix of things, that high and low, that rich and poor, all of those contrasts, the everyday and the extraordinary."
While Marc plans for the line to be reabsorbed back into the brand, it is unknown what the future has in store for Marc by Marc Jacobs' creative director Katie Hillier but it is believed she will stay with the label.
It is also unknown whether their womenswear designer Luella Bartley will find a new place in the company.
Meanwhile, Marc Jacobs' CEO Sebastian Suhl hopes merging the lines will help them to fill the "white space" caused by the gap in the price points of the luxury and contemporary market.
Tagged in Marc Jacobs