Marc Jacobs Cancels His Annual Holiday Party

View Story On One Page

Print This Story

Share This Story

By Irina Aleksander

November 4, 2008 | 3:54 p.m

Marc Jacobs.

+Enlarge

Getty Images.

We have some terrible news. As of about 30 minutes ago, Women's Wear Daily is reporting that the annual masquerade holiday party thrown by Marc Jacobs and his best friend and longtime business partner Robert Duffy--has been canceled due to the current economic situation.

"Due to the financial climate, I had to make the decision to cancel the 2008 holiday party," Mr. Duffy wrote an e-mail that went out earlier today to guests invited to the annual bash, which had been scheduled for Dec. 10 at the Rainbow Room and was to have a "Rock and Roll Circus" theme. "It pains me as this has been a Marc Jacobs tradition for the past 18 years. Hopefully it will be reinstated next year."

To give everyone a taste of the Marc Jacobsian decadence that used to define these parties, last year's theme, "Venice Carnivale," held at Gotham Hall was described thusly by W magazine (not online):

Masked revelers at Marc Jacob's annual holiday bash at Gotham Hall took the Venice Carnival theme to heart, partying as if the city of canals would be underwater by morning. Gondoliers hit up the champagne fountain, French poodles flirted with one another and women strapped on corsets so tight they could barely speak. "I can breathe, but I can't really move," whispered Lisa Airan, dressed in a traditional Venetian gown originally created for Sophia Loren.

She wasn't the only one to forsake comfort for fashion. "I won't host a party unless I'm the most uncomfortable person in the room," said Jacobs, constrained in a pigeon suit in homage to the birds in Piazza San Marco.

Staff and friends, including Allison Sarofim and Lars Nilsson, waltzed around as confetti and feathers rained down from the domed ceiling. Rachel Roy ogled the curvy, half-naked girls and muscular G-stringed boys gyrating on podiums. "I can't stop looking at their asses," she said, laughing.