Times, they are a-changing. The world of fashion is, by its very nature, one that’s subject to the prevailing winds of all manner of trends, and yet 2025 has been something of an annus horribilis for certain brands that once seemed almost impervious to industry downturns.
At the top of this list is fashion megalith Marc Jacobs, which is currently up for sale. French luxury powerhouse LVMH is currently deep in negotiations with an array of potential buyers, having decided that it no longer sees a future for Marc Jacobs within its industry-leading portfolio of brands; a who’s who of opulent labels including Dior, Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Bulgari, Tiffany & Co and Givenchy, among many others.
Changing trends, changing times
Marc Jacobs is a relative newcomer in relation to its peers at LVMH. Founded in 1984 by American designer Marc Jacobs, the brand was celebrated for its avant-garde approach and bold, urbane runway shows. It encapsulated an emerging trend at the time for blending street stylings with high fashion, crafting innovative pieces that helped bring East Coast aesthetics to the wider world. Jacobs caught the attention of LVMH in 1997 – a watershed year for the fashion industry as a whole – when LVMH brought Jacobs into the fold to lead Louis Vuitton to greater heights, and acquired the Marc Jacobs label in the process.
While details of the Marc Jacobs sale thus far remain relatively under wraps, those interested in taking the reins of the brand include Authentic Brands Group (owner of Juicy Couture, Hunter, Vince and Barneys New York), Bluestar Alliance and WHP Global, all fairly distinct and different from LVMH in their approach and portfolio, and all apparently willing to cross the billion dollar mark to become the top bidder.
While the luxury fashion world has responded to news of the sale with surprise, it’s far from the first time that rumours of Marc Jacobs being released from LVMH have circulated. Indeed, a Bloomberg report in 2024 confidently announced that LVMH was investigating ‘strategic options’ for the future of Marc Jacobs after potential buyers expressed interest. While the claims were denied by both Marc Jacobs and LVMH at the time, the seeds of doubt were already sown, causing many speculators in fashion to reassess Jacobs’ place alongside the rest of the LVMH stable.
A year of transformation in luxury fashion
When the Marc Jacobs deal inevitably closes, it won’t be the first major luxury deal to shake up the scene in 2025. Prada made the unexpected move to acquire Versace from Capri Holdings earlier in Spring, bringing together two iconic and once level-pegging Italian fashion houses in a transaction said to top $1.4 billion.
LVMH has been busily streamlining its portfolio since the start of last year, signalling a shift in priorities for the luxury group. Other brands have been divested; Off-White, the fashion label launched by Virgil Abloh in 2012, was sold to Bluestar Alliance for an undisclosed amount of money in 2024, and just a few months ago Stella McCartney bought back LVMH’s minority stake in her brand – a mere five years after it was initially acquired.
Reacting to rapid and unexpected decline
So, what does the impending sale of Marc Jacobs mean for luxury fashion and luxury industries as a whole? While speculation has been varied, there’s no real denying the fact that it’s been a challenging few years for high-end labels. The sale of one of the most iconic fashion brands of the noughties and beyond comes against a backdrop of a fall in global luxury demand, said by many to be the result of geopolitical and economic uncertainties, unexpected price increases, and (perhaps most pertinently) the rise of a new UHNW generation keen to shape the industry in their own image.
The facts and figures speak volumes. July 2025 saw LVMH report a 15% decline in profits from the first two quarters of 2025, citing a significant drop in sales across both leather goods and fashion – the bread and butter of LVMH’s output. This followed a 4% drop in revenue in 2024, again with fashion and leather goods taking the biggest hits. Affluent customers have cut back on spending in the fashion space (although tourist spending, particularly in the Far East, is doing well), and game-changing decisions had to be made.
An inevitable conclusion?
The offloading of Marc Jacobs has been said to be part of a bid for LVMH to formulate a new era for the conglomerate; one typified by a ‘super class’ of high-end brands. On the one hand, Dior have increased their prices for the hotly-anctipated first collection for Jonathan Anderson. On the other, Marc Jacobs no longer feels quite right to be rubbing shoulders with such heritage labels.
Simply put, LVMH increasingly lacks interest in designer brands with a focus on high street fashion – DKNY, a very similar brand to Jacobs in many ways – was sold off in 2016, and for comparable reasons: it proved to be a difficult brand to scale and make money from.
Industry insiders (with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, naturally) claim the sale of Marc Jacobs was something of an inevitability. There is simply too much breadth and inconsistency to the brand, with both avant-garde runway designs and affordable street fashion, tote bags and accessories jostling for recognition. The result is a high fashion brand that lacks believability and justifiable value – despite Jacobs’ obvious talent as a designer, the label ended up diluting itself with its own ubiquity and accessibility.
However, what’s not quite right for LVMH will doubtlessly be a great fit for another conglomerate, hence the current scrum for ownership. Marc Jacobs remains a globally-recognised brand, and whoever ends up as the new owner is likely to continue and capitalise on Jacobs’ more affordable, accessible aspect. While this may come at the cost of Marc Jacobs’ runway shows and high-end output, the bottom line is sure to remain healthy.
Where next for Marc Jacobs?
Several aspects of the Marc Jacobs brand are doing well, and it’s likely that whoever buys the label will want to stick with what works, and do away with (or at least, heavily reduce) any dead weight. As such, we can expect to see the continuation of Jacobs’ perfume and eyewear lines, licensed to Coty and Safilo Group, respectively. There’s also clear room for the accessories category to continue growing, and the buoyant market for luxury handbags within a more affordable stratum means this is likely an avenue worth exploring.
As for Jacobs’ runway shows, it’s currently hard to say. Marc Jacobs has been a darling of the New York fashion scene since the eighties, and his runway shows (always in NYC and always contrarily off-schedule) have been central to the brand since the very beginning. However, they no longer work as commercial engines. Jacobs’ creativity needs to be channeled into a competitive, commercial approach to fashion. That likely means less of the avant-garde, and more wearable runway collections under the spotlight.
It won’t be a total 180 turn for the brand. Indeed, clear efforts were made in 2025’s runway season – the launch of the Christina bag saw Marc Jacobs seemingly embrace the accessible from the catwalk this summer, and the Spring/Summer shows relied heavily on more high street staples like the pleated pants that took centre stage. That this needs to go further, however, is without question – the future of the brand will have to be in commercial apparel, rather than Jacobs’ flights of fancy at Fashion Week.
No matter what happens in the coming weeks and months, the Marc Jacobs legacy and his legendary status as a New York designer feels relatively secure. Trends come, trends go, and LVMH isn’t the only player on the world stage. Indeed, the fact that Marc Jacobs is the subject of a Sofia Coppola documentary – Marc by Sofia – set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival this year, suggests renewed interest in the man and the brand is closer than many might have thought.
