By Edward Nguyen ’25
Managing Editor
With the recent resurgence of the Y2K craze, fashion houses like Blumarine and GCDS have incorporated early 2000s trends into their runway shows from New York to Paris Fashion Weeks; however, when discussing Y2K in fashion, one name in specific comes to mind: heaven by Marc Jacobs. From hosting film screenings like Gregg Araki’s “Nowhere” to their recent NYFW party with performances by Doja Cat, PinkPantheress and Charli XCX, heaven by Marc Jacobs has successfully branded itself as the epicenter for Gen Z fashion and pop culture. Their new fall collection consisting of items like $65 baby tees, animal accessories, and one-of-a-kind plush toys has raised an important question — is heaven by Marc Jacobs an homage to 90s and Y2K subculture that subverts the fashion industry’s hyperfixation on elegance and minimalism or is it simply just another avenue for “cool kids” to consume microtrends and exploit POC?
Heaven is the creative birth child of Marc Jacobs and Brooklyn-based designer Ava Nirui. Since its inception in 2020, heaven has created an impressive presence in the fashion industry through seasonal campaigns starring influential figures like Bella Hadid, Nicki Minaj, and Olivia Rodrigo.With fast fashion companies like Jaded London and SHEIN dominating fashion, heaven has carved a unique avenue for itself in the era of TikTok as a luxury ready-to-wear brand that is “a gateway into the sprawling and enigmatic omniverse of Marc Jacobs subversion.”^1 While many have praised the brand and/or rocked its signature double-headed bear baby tee at one point in their life, others perceive heaven as a mix of different cultural aesthetics without any acknowledgement of the POC that created this blueprint.
In a 2020 campaign lookbook for heaven, Marc Jacobs called on the creator of FRUiTS, a Japanese fashion magazine, and photographer Shoichi Aoki to capture models wearing heaven’s clothing in Tokyo. FRUiTS was a magazine dedicated to documenting the “cool kid” in the 90s at the peak of Harajuku street fashion. The concept of harajuku fashion originated from young kids in Tokyo who wanted to combat strict societal norms in a conformist society through bright graphics, thrifted pieces, and the idea of uniqueness. While heaven draws heavy inspiration from the harajuku style that relies on thrifted items, heaven instead reverts it into a mass-produced system where people can buy “coolness” that inevitably benefits the man at the top of the heaven capitalistic chain — Marc Jacobs. Heaven relies on the aestheticization of Asian culture, particularly that of Japanese fashion with the concepts of “kawaii” and “harajuku,.” This aestheticization promotes an environment where people of color are being pushed out of their own culture for the benefit of both Marc Jacobs economically and for the “cool kid” to explore and fetishize these different cultural aesthetics. From $200 Wong Kar-Wai quoted zip-ups to $75 magazines with Japanese icons like Nobuyoshi Araki on them, the Asian iconography used in heaven is just another instance of a concept that rarely receives enough criticism due to its pervasiveness in our system — the intersection between the Eurocentric fashion industry and the West’s constant adoration for orientalism/cultural exploitation.
Aside from the Asian influence in heaven, another concept that must be explored is the inherent whiteness within heaven. When looking up Y2K icons on the internet, the first results that come up are Paris Hilton, Avril Lavigne, and Britney Spears. While all of these women are irrefutably icons, the internet fails to recognize the major contributions that the Black community have made towards the development of Gen-Z Y2K brands like heaven. Dating back to artists like OutKast and Missy Elliot who incorporated Afrofuturism, a subculture of Black culture that emphasized science and technology, into their clothing, the Y2K genre was born with an incorporation of intergalactic-inspired clothing into its DNA. Even more so, girl groups like Destiny’s Child and TLC were responsible for popularizing Y2K trends like mesh tops, colorful baby graphic tees, and extravagant jewelry that define the heaven omniverse –— yet, the influence of Black culture is rarely brought to the limelight. Heaven’s outward perception as a brand for “cool kids” by mass media when the same clothing on Black celebrities is called “weird” and “trashy” is a testament to the racism and overall white-washing that has occurred by Gen-Z in the Y2K genre. Even though heaven does recruit POC to be involved within their marketing campaigns, one must question to what extent this is a truly inclusive and diverse movement as opposed to a facade to cover up blatant cultural exploitation.
Ultimately, heaven — and by extension, the entire Y2K movement — needs to be analyzed in relation to the POC who helped trailblaze the brand’s success. Don’t get me wrong — I was scrolling through the recent heaven collection drop minutes before writing this article, as, in my opinion, heaven is a fun brand. However, to conceptualize fashion, it’s necessary for consumers to acknowledge how heaven has undoubtedly profited off of POC erasure and exploitation.
Like countless other trends and styles, one must recognize that there is no heaven by Marc Jacobs without POC. End. Of. Discussion.
End Notes:
1 Heaven by Marc Jacobs. https://www.marcjacobs.com/default/heaven/heaven.html. Accessed 13 Oct. 2022.
