COFFEE AND MARK JACOBS

(FROM A WEEKEND NOTE, THE EDITOR'S LETTER IN STYLE WEEKEND, PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY IN MANILA BULLETIN, 4 APRIL 2008)

There’s not much you can talk about over a 20-minute coffee break, but over coffee at the Peninsula Manila with Robert Duffy, who has been described by Fortune as “the man behind fashion’s $5 billion man,” 20 minutes was more than enough to acquaint yourself with all the forces that make Marc Jacobs tick, whether or not you are aware that the Damier Azur Spring 2008 you are lusting for from Louis Vuitton’s latest trove is his creation. It’s also because having been the other half of the twenty-five-year-old duo that has caused a big stir in global fashion, reinventing the image and quadrupling the sales of a heritage yet inert brand like Louis Vuitton in the late ’90s, Robert could speak volumes per minute—and with nothing to hide—not only about the business but also about all the drama behind Marc Jacobs, the brand and the person.

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In the fashion world, it seems, behind every successful designer, there’s a Robert Duffy… —Mark Borden, Fortune

But Robert was not in town for Louis Vuitton, but for Marc Jacobs International (MJI), with which, our very own Anton Huang of Stores Specialists, Inc. has collaborated on the long-awaited opening of the Marc by Marc Jacobs standalone at Greenbelt 5, one of the few things to look forward to this summer. In fact, over the last week or so, the “other half” of Marc Jacobs, who is president of MJI, vice chairman of its partnership with the international conglomerate LVMH that owns 96 percent of it (but hardly has—“or wants”—any say in its creative direction), and director at Louis Vuitton, has been jetsetting through Asia, hopping from Tokyo to Shanghai, Hong Kong to Hanoi, Saigon to Bangkok. Manila was his last stop in Asia before tackling South America.
Robert is no stranger to Manila, where he has been before to visit a friend’s family, but he is leaving it all to Anton and Stores Specialists to grow Marc by Marc Jacobs here. Asked whether or not there was enough awareness of the brand in this country, he answered with no marketing pretensions, “Oh, I don’t know. You just have to trust your partner here. That’s all we do—and that’s all we can do—with our partners on our 140 stores all over the world.”
But in New York, where both Marc and Robert are based, it’s a different story and Robert practically micro-manages every aspect of the operation. In fact, at the Marc by Marc Jacobs store on Bleecker Street in New York, Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour has been quoted as saying, “So many times I see Robert in there folding pants and stocking shelves.” More than a business partner, he is, after all, the creative “manager,” providing the commercial impetus Marc Jacobs needs to make his work a successful, enduring enterprise. Even more important, Robert is a personal friend, whose role in Marc’s life includes helping pick him up when things are falling apart, such as when his drug problem began to put his life and his work at stake. “In the end,” said Robert, who himself escorted his friend to rehab in the wake of his worsening addiction first in 1999 and then again last year, “You just have to love the person and show them that they are loved.”
The two have been working ever so closely together since 1984. But even their duties as partners overlap. Because Marc, for instance, is not too keen on menswear, which, as Robert estimates, forms no more than 15 percent of MJI, it falls on his shoulders to work on some of it together with the design team, especially for Marc by Marc Jacobs. “But again, it’s always Marc and me,” he quickly clarified. Indeed, while Marc Jacobs is perceived as the genius behind all the labels that represent his work, it is Robert that fuels it, nurtures it, manages it, and brings it to higher levels. What’s more, Robert is a genius himself not only on the business side of things but the creative aspects as well.
There’s no doubt how crucial Robert Duffy is to Marc Jacobs. As Marc himself has put it in his Fortune interview, “Marc Jacobs is Marc Jacobs and Robert Duffy or Robert Duffy and Marc Jacobs, whichever way you want to put it.”

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In an upcoming issue of Style Weekend, Robert Duffy on fashion, on business, on art and demons, on friendship, and on Marc Jacobs, all in his own words.