For the launch of his new label, The Marc Jacobs, designer Marc Jacobs has collaborated with New York to build a collection featuring the magazine’s logotype, first drawn by Milton Glaser in 1968. The line mixes New York’s logo with a new mashed-up version reading “Marc Jacobs” on products and prints available across all its product categories, including sandals, jewelry, bags, and apparel. “The Marc Jacobs riffs on this classic emblem,” the brand says of the line. “The play on the logo is a nod to all New Yorkers, who will instantly recognize Glaser’s letterforms but will be pleasantly surprised to see “Marc Jacobs” and “New York” interchanged throughout.”
New York Media was first approached by Marc Jacobs about collaborating on a collection in late 2018. “We saw this as a unique licensing opportunity, as both Marc Jacobs and New York Magazine are brands intrinsic to New York,” says Shyra Smart, New York’s head of business development. “The synergy of the collaboration just made sense.”
Marc Jacobs isn’t the first clothing brand to have shown interest in New York’s graphic-design past and present. New York teamed up with OnlyNY for two capsule collections in 2017 and 2018, bringing to life old covers, illustrations, and photographs from the magazine’s first decade, vintage New York merch, and more. “The logo says ‘New York’—so it can stand for both the city and the magazine in people’s minds, and heaven knows there are a lot of people who love both,” says New York’s city editor, Christopher Bonanos, on the public fascination with the magazine’s archives. “It’s also evocative of a particular design era, the late ’60s and early ’70s, that’s really in style right now — that kind of sophisticated minimalism with a groovy tinge really looks fresh again.”
Bonanos also believes these recent collaborations make sense in light of the magazine’s storied history of covering shopping and consumerism. “One of the great innovations of New York was that it put really strong writing and reporting in the same weekly package with smart, discerning consumerism,” he says, noting that publications such as The New Yorker and the New York Times were somewhat sheepish back then about the idea that their readers actually bought stuff. “We figured out early that upscale urbanites are enthusiastic shoppers and diners, and that they craved advice and direction from other enthusiastic shoppers and diners. So it seems appropriate that a major designer wants to pair up with us.”
Bonanos, who is the magazine’s unofficial historian, has eBay alerts set for anything related to New York Magazine and has built up a small corporate archive of vintage merchandise. “As far as I can tell, our first logo T-shirts were sold around 1974 or ’75,” he says, noting that they were available in New York City’s official colors—blue with an orange logo, and orange with a blue logo. Other merch he’s assembled from the magazine’s 51 years in business include a trucker hat with a plastic-mesh back and a logo patch on the front, probably made during the first blush of dirtbag-hipsterdom around 1999 or so, and a wool-and-suede varsity jacket that has a giant elaborate logo on the back from the 25th-anniversary celebration in 1993. “Someone on eBay recently sold a paperweight, displaying our logo cast in a brick of polished aluminum, that I’d never seen before,” he adds. “Apparently there must be some serious paperweight enthusiasts out there, because the bidding took off and someone paid $600 for it. It has — to someone, at least — become a luxury good! Which bodes well for the Marc Jacobs collaboration.”