Marc Jacobs Bans Celebrities

By Susie Anderson of LimeLife.com

Celebs won't make $100K from Marc Jacobs

The other day, we reported that some celebrities (like Rihanna) make up to $100,000 just for sitting in the front row at fashion shows during Fashion Week. Well, Marc Jacobs is doing quite the opposite of paying celebrities to attend his fashion shows. He's banning them from attending!

I have a lot of respect for Marc Jacobs for banning celebrities from attending his fashion shows. He obviously knows what's important during Fashion Week and doesn't want anything (or anyone) to take away from the actual fashion in his collections.

According to Jacob's business partner Marc Duffy, a lot has changed over the years. He says, "We're not going to have celebrities. Last season we had two celebrities that showed up. One because Lady Gaga was doing our after-party, and she didn't even make it to her seat because we started the show before she got there. And one was Madonna. She came backstage, and I was like, ‘What do you do with her now?"

Doesn't it just seem like designers must have more important things to focus on during Fashion Week than the crazy celebrities attending their events? At least Madonna has been a model for Louise Vuitton, but it's still not necessary for her to be at the fashion show.

In fact, Madonna hadn't even been invited to the event. Duffy continues, saying, "Because it's not like she was invited. She just called and said she was coming, and we weren't holding the show for her. She just came and that was it." Good for them! I'm sure lots of designers will wait to start the show until celebrities arrive (and I'm sure many arrive late). But Marc Jacobs and his team aren't going to wait around for a celebrity to show up in the audience. Not even for Madonna or Lady Gaga!

While Duffy notes people enjoy seeing celebrities in the crowd, he doesn't want them to take away from the actual show. He says, "There's certain things I can't control, but we used to have all the celebrities and people there, and I think that at that moment in time that's what people loved. It generated so much press and at a certain point it was like, ‘Did anybody actually watch the show?"

I wish more designers would be more concerned with the actual fashions they're showing off rather than the celebrities they're paying to sit in the front row! We don't care what celebrities are at your show; we care what your new collections look like.