What Will John Targon Bring to Marc Jacobs? 5 Ideas From the Baja East Runway
John Targon, the cofounder and creative director of Baja East, has joined the Marc Jacobs design team. While nothing has been confirmed about the nature of Targon’s role, he is expected to be tasked with building out Marc Jacobs’s lower-priced line—just don’t call it Marc by Marc Jacobs. Following a short, successful reinvigoration of the MbMJ brand by Katie Hillier and Luella Bartley in 2014 and 2015, the sister line was folded into the main Marc Jacobs collection. Runway shows and stores now show both Marc Jacobs’s main and its lower-priced sister pieces together.
As for Targon, he had a long history in the fashion business before Baja East, working in sales for Burberry and Céline. At the label he cofounded with Scott Studenberg, he’s developed an ath-luxurious aesthetic comprised of cashmere sweatsuits, tongue-in-cheek logo tees, and plenty of midriff-baring tops. How will that inform the look of Marc Jacobs? Here are our guesses.
Marc by Marc Jacobs Fall 2015; Baja East Spring 2018
At its height, the Marc by Marc Jacobs brand was the go-to for wallflower types looking for kooky prints and oddly proportioned separates. This recent Baja East look ticks both boxes, with a dark tropical floral print and loose, slouchy shape that echoes the oversize silhouettes of much of Jacobs’s work. Our only update? The MJ girl is probably not big on showing her midriff. Replace that crop top with a black cardigan and you’ve got a true MJ woman.
Marc Jacobs Fall 2009; Baja East Fall 2017
Marc Jacobs is a master of time travel, taking his collections from the swinging ’60s to the streamlined ’30s, for example, from season to season. The decade Targon and Jacobs can agree upon is the haute glam ’70s. At Marc Jacobs, the era has been represented with Studio 54–worthy dresses and Bowie-esque suiting; Baja East has its own, albeit more relaxed, take on Bowie with this lamé gold suit.
Marc Jacobs Fall 2006; Baja East Fall 2016
With muses that range from Beetlejuice to Violet from The Incredibles, it’s safe to say that there’s a certain gothic undercurrent to the Marc Jacobs brand. This sparkle-flecked black velvet dress from Baja East would fit in well amidst Jacobs’s own goth-y looks, like the layered leopard velvet of Fall 2006 or the elongated maxi dresses of Fall 2016.
Marc Jacobs Spring 2015; Baja East Spring 2016
A surfer girl spirit has long been present at Marc Jacobs, usually taking a darker, more twisted turn than your typical Cali beach babes. (See Marc Jacobs’s Spring 2015 collection for the proof.) At Baja East, surf essentials like tie-dye prints and draped sarongs have gotten subversive rethinks, too. Here, Spring 2016’s loose trousers and draped, sequin-studded top.
Marc Jacobs Fall 2014; Baja East Fall 2015
Monochrome light gray knitwear and a furry bomber? No, you’re not looking at Marc Jacobs’s subdued Fall 2014 collection of retro-futuristic pastel skiwear. This is Baja East’s own take on tone-on-tone comfort dressing. Needless to say, it’s very in line with a Marc Jacobs look.
