Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
After a marathon round of fashion shows taking in four cities around the world, there is one name on the fashion calendar that is guaranteed to revive even the most catwalk-weary fashion editor.
After two-and-a-half decades in the industry, Marc Jacobs, whose Louis Vuitton show provided the finale to the show season in Paris, is at the very top of his game.
Arguably the most influential designer of his generation, Jacobs can command the most celebrity-riddled front rows, he has the power to persuade Victoria Beckham to pose in a carrier bag, and his clothes notoriously tempted Winona Ryder to shoplift.
He designs for three major labels: two are his own, with a combined turnover in the region of $350 million, and he is also creative director of French luxury house Louis Vuitton, where he has quadrupled the brand's sales since he started there 10 years ago.
He possesses a commercial Midas touch and has simultaneously managed to associate his name with the notion of downtown Manhattan cool.
As Tim Blanks, of American industry website Style.com says, "he is the master of merging the creative with the commercial."
His influence is reflected in every high street shop, and on the quilted fake bags sold in street markets the world over. And all this from a geeky outsider and recovering drug addict who was fired from his first major fashion job.
Alexandra Shulman, editor of Vogue, agrees that his influence is staggering. "Marc is one (of) the great contemporary fashion talents," she says. "He has pitch-perfect style which he can translate into a handbag range for Vuitton or T-shirts for his Marc line. He seems to be able to pin down cool again and again without being alienating."
