JKR

Every now and then one sees a design and thinks “in twenty years time, that will be used to sum up our era”. I think Marc Jacobs’ Lola fits the bill as an exemplar of design’s response to the downturn. Dredging up memories of old art college lectures, I remember learning that one response to the scarcities and gloom of wartime Britain was the popularity of dramatic pillar box lipstick. And as soon as fabric was again available post-war, designers swapped utility minimalism for exuberant and extravagant fashions as epitomised by Dior’s “new look”. The design for Lola feels like the spiritual granddaughter of those trends.

Marc Jacobs has commented that this design (which he made himself in leather before being manufactured in rubber), is his response to the joy people told him they got from the cartoon style cap on Daisy. Lola’s design feels less like an evolution from the successful Daisy scent and more like taking a design to its absurd limits, and the name is great – this , I assume, is Daisy’s more up-for-it sister.  Exaggeration, confidence and a joyful use of colour might all add up to whistling in the dark, but it’s great that 2009 is producing such full blooded branding.