There is a scene in the new documentary “I Am: Celine Dion” in which Ms. Dion describes her devotion to designer heels.
“When a girl loves her shoes, she makes sure they always fit,” the singer said, spreading her fingers to show how she has contorted her toes to fit size 6 to 10 shoes. While shopping she asked her size, she said: She would respond to sales associates, “What size are you? I’ll make them work. I will make them fit.”
It’s a feeling well known to women who enjoy playing dress-up: a determination so strong that it resists delusions.
That was certainly the feeling at Marc Jacobs’ runway show Monday night, held at the New York Public Library. Fashion is determined to be a joyful medium, even or especially when the world seems joyless. And Mr. Jacobs was determined to dress his models as surreal puppets from 20th-century American iconography.
A heavy white Marilyn Monroe dress opened the show. The bodice was oversized, with pointy bra cups and a skirt permanently shaped into half-flight. Marilyn walked in white sandals that looked about an inch too big in every direction, like a girl who insisted on wearing heels from her mother’s closet. (“I walk with the shoe, the shoe does not walk with me,” as Mrs. Dion would say.)
The proportions were a continuation of Mr. Jacobs’ runway show in February: big and cartoonish, like a joke we should all be in on. The models seemed to struggle to keep their bulky clothes in place, although of course they fit exactly as Mr. Jacobs intended. The necklines were lifted off the shoulders by invisible fingers of Peter Pan collar jackets, preppy V-neck sweaters and voluminous floral cocktail dresses. Saccharine bikinis – one in white pointelle, fastened with a photorealistic daisy brooch, and the other in yellow polka dots – swayed and jutted out from the body.
Sometimes these proportions seemed diabolical. Some shoes had horned toes. The models could not fully open their eyes, which were covered with thickly veiled pastel pads, as a commentary on women blinded to the world by their obsession with beauty. (Or perhaps, as stylist Gabriella Karefa-Johnson suggested on Instagram, it was simply a tribute to Miss Piggy.)
Although sometimes subversive — Mr. Jacobs can make a pretty eyelet dress look deranged — the collection was fundamentally optimistic. The designer opened his show notes with a single sentence: “Joy, period.” He wrote about seeing fashion as a path to a “deeper pursuit of joy, beauty and personal transformation.” He covered Cardi B, a guest, with a cloud of purple and yellow flowers.
Mr. Jacobs’ personal transformation lately includes wearing long nails that can be seen and heard (the rhythmic clicking!) from meters away. Nails are on Monday were of French makewhose tops are covered in gemstones that resemble a few embellished pieces from the collection, including a mini-skirt suit.
About the miniskirt suits: The most discussed topic in fashion is still who will take over Chanel after the departure of artistic director Virginie Viard. Mr. Jacobs, who incorporated quilted handbags into the show Monday night, is one of several names coming up in conversation — perhaps not among the top three suspects, but somewhere in the top 10.
While none of the contenders have publicly responded to the speculation, some eyebrows were raised by these words in Mr. Jacobs’ show notes: “The future remains unwritten.”
