Marc Jacobs on Being ‘Addicted’ to Instagram and Collecting Labubus

Fashion designer Marc Jacobs may have more than 2.2 million followers on his personal Instagram account, but he wasn’t always a fan of the social media app.

“For someone who was so anti-Instagram in the very, very beginning, I really took to it,” Jacobs tells me during a Zoom chat to discuss his role as the fashion and culture judge for Instagram Rings, a new awards program honoring 25 IG creators for their creativity. “Once I got into it, I just couldn’t get enough of it. I feel like I’m quite addicted to Instagram. It’s the first thing I see in the morning and kind of the last thing I see before bed.”

He doesn’t know exactly how many hours he spends a week scrolling, but says he’s “horrified” when he sometimes sees the pop-up on his phone that details hours of use. “I know it’s true, but then my mind goes, ‘That’s not possible. I couldn’t have possibly been on my phone that much,’” Jacobs says.

Also too much right now may be his very Instagram-documented collection of Labubus. “I think we’re doing good with what I have now,” Jacobs says. “I’m kind of up to my eyeballs.”

How did your Labubu collection start?

During the preparation for my show, the makeup artist I work with, Pat McGrath, gave me one when she had one on her bag, and I commented on it. I swore I wasn’t going to get into it, but I did. Then that opened a floodgate. For me, there’s always the perversity of getting on a trendy bandwagon and just liking it for the irony. I think I’m going to enjoy them as long as I feel like it, trendy or not trendy. Perhaps I’ll just turn them over to some young person who’s still interested in them.

How did your feelings about Instagram evolve?

I don’t know the year, but there was all this buzz about Instagram. People were talking so much about social media, and I love this expression that says, “contempt prior to investigation.” I would say to anybody who would listen that social media is anti-social media. I believed that to be social, it had to have a physical connection and contact. Being social through a screen or through an app felt anti-social. But that’s a very old way of looking at life. When I did go on Instagram to check it out, I found that I’m a show-off. I’m an extrovert. I like to show off my new haircuts, my new bags, my new nails, whatever. I love hearing that people hated it or they loved it. It also reconnected me with people that I hadn’t seen in a long time and introduced me to new people who I found very interesting.

What were you looking for when nominating creators for Rings?

My first reaction was to be very instinctive and think who in the last couple of weeks or months has made me laugh? Who’s taught me something I didn’t know? Who is doing something I’ve never seen? I just kind of gave a quick shoutout list to those people. But then I had to ask around a little bit because I wanted to learn more about people I might not know of.

What are some of your favorite fashion accounts to follow?

I follow the designers whose work I really love and admire. That list is long. I also follow accounts like Business of Fashion, Diet Prada, Boring Not Com and Style Not Com. I like some of the ones that are more snarky, as well as the ones that are more business. I like some of the very kitschy fashion enthusiasts. There’s one account, Angelica Hicks, who makes iconic runway looks out of stuff she has around the house. I find her endlessly amusing and how accurate her DIY creations are.

How do you feel about AI being used in fashion? I’m sure there’s someone out there who is asking AI to design something that looks and feels like a Marc Jacobs design.

The AI conversation gets to be really headache-inducing, so I don’t know. What can I say? It is what it is. Everything can be used as a tool for good and to build, or for bad and destruction and deception. I’ve become a big believer in ChatGPT, which I wasn’t in the beginning, either. Obviously, there’s a scary, dangerous side to AI, but there’s also a really great, amazing new form of creativity that can emerge as a result of it.

Sofia Coppola’s documentary about your life, “Marc by Sofia,” premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Are we going to see a scripted feature film or a limited series about your life next?

Would I do it? Yeah, if Ryan Murphy did it. It would be very sexy and so kitsch. I would love it.

Would it fall under the “American Horror Story” or the “Monster” series?

I am definitely “American Horror Story” all the way. [Laughs]. Ask anybody around me. They’ll tell you that I am an “American Horror Story.” Obviously, we’re joking, but a series would be amusing.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Winners of the inaugural Instagram Rings will be announced Oct. 16. Additional judges include Grace Wales Bonner (she designed the award’s physical and digital rings), Spike Lee, artist KAWS, YouTuber Marques Brownlee (MKBHD), Instagram CEO and president Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s director of fashion partnerships Eva Chen, makeup artist Pat McGrath, pastry chef Cédric Grolet, Grammy winning producer and songwriter Tainy, photographer Murad Osmann, American rugby union player Ilona Maher and actress Yara Shahidi.