Marc Jacobs has always been a highlight of New York Fashion Week; like his iconic Park Avenue and Lexington Avenue armory spectacles that were once famously late, and then became promptly punctual.

One show followed by a party for the debut of his first perfume on the waterfront was a magical New York evening on September 10, 2001. It was an ironic highpoint for the city, followed by hell on Earth the next morning.

During the aughties, the Marc Jacobs brand blossomed to include Marc by Marc Jacobs for men and women, a kid’s line, a bookstore, and more. Today, his iconic tongue-in-cheek ‘labeled’ leather goods sell like hotcakes worldwide.

The designer has always had a cheeky side and pays homage to his unique vision. Since debuting his collection shows to a “see now, buy now” schedule post-Covid, Marc Jacobs has helped bring back the kind of fashion excitement and awe that, frankly, is lacking in New York at the moment.

It was also a New York moment for his iconic guests who attended Marc Jacobs’ latest show at New York’s public library, such as Tracee Ellis Ross, Lisa Rinna, Nicky Hilton, Bowen Yang, Jessie Reyes, Anna Sui, and one of the strongest line-ups of the fashion industry who’s who that not every show here commands.

Yang was a delightful surprise as one of the show attendees. The “Saturday Night Live” star told FashionNetwork.com why Marc Jacobs was the first New York fashion show he ever attended.

“I never said ‘yes’ as I didn’t have the time or feel super connected to that brand. But when I first moved to New York City, I was flipping through a magazine at Barnes & Noble right near here and seeing Marc in the Bang perfume spread, which was so aspirational. He had the SpongeBob tattoo, he was so naked and the coolest person on this planet, so this feels like a fitting seal break for me to come to fashion week,” Yang said, noting the show was also inspirational for some of his skits, which often involve spoofing fashion, “Those boots…” he added.

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Part of the charm of Jacobs’ newest designs is the superb mix of chic, cubic content, and cartoon inspiration. The designer started going big about a year ago, in a show where he returned to the Park Avenue armory (though he has mainly chosen the New York Public Library, of late) with a collection that introduced gigantic proportions. Last July,  Jacobs built on that idea with clothes with a paper doll effect, almost comically restrictive for movement, but very cool.

Many of Marc’s girls at this show were in their own doll-faced looks, demonstrating their wearability. It’s not a look for everyone, according to the internet; frankly, it takes confidence and courage to pull it off. Jacobs addressed the idea of courage in his show notes, saying with heart, humility, and gratitude, he has embraced fear as a friend, not a foe. He added that it’s a “necessary companion to creativity, authenticity, integrity, and life.”

Jacobs continued, perhaps in a double entendre, to refer to the suffice-it-to-say strange times we live in. “With precious freedom, we dream and imagine without limitation, daring to be vulnerable in the face of criticism and failure, not to escape from reality but to help navigate, understand, and confront it—exploring through curiosity, conviction, compassion, and love.”

Set to Philip Glass’s progressive opera, “Einstein on the Beach: Knee Play 5,” Jacobs explored his proportion exercise by creating bulbous silhouettes, pointed volume in lieu of curves, origami-esque shapes, especially on skirts, padded large bows and extreme-shape footwear.

The shrunken sweaters and jackets, the squared-hip paints, the puffy cinched waist trench, and jaguar print coats, the group of red bow evening looks at the finales and the saccharine nightgown trapeze-shaped dress were desirable and viable, commercially speaking.

The collection challenges an embrace of proportions, and while, at first, it could be described as jarring, one will eventually see it as the norm. Sound familiar? If that isn’t an analogy of fashion as a reflection of society, then nothing is.