Contrary to rumor, Jesus Luz won’t appear in Louis Vuitton’s fall 2009 ad campaign with Madonna, Vuitton designer Marc Jacobs told us at Cipriani Wall Street during the 2009 Parsons Fashion Spring Benefit last night. (Okay, sometimes we get things wrong.) Reporters routinely hound Jacobs with questions about Madonna’s man candy. “I don’t know why!” he said, laughing. “Why is everyone asking me about him? He’s not modeling for me. I don’t do menswear.” Madonna, however, is, and Jacobs said they’d just been working together that day. “I think it was a great shoot,” he said. “She’s the ultimate professional and she and Steven are amazing. I love working with her. There’s no one better.” He refused to divulge the concept of the campaign.
But if Jesus hasn’t yet earned a spot in a Vuitton campaign, he has earned a place as good friend to Jacobs and his fiancé, Lorenzo Martone. “We’re friends and we have dinner sometimes,” said Martone. “I guess as a Brazilian that’s in New York and is in this industry, I have some hints and advice to give. You know, he’s starting a very big modeling career and he has a lot of potential. So he asks me my opinion about some people in the industry — photographers and that. And I tell him.” Where do these advice-giving sessions take place? The Waverly Inn, of course. “We don’t really have a hangout,” said Martone. “We’ve been having a lot of dinners at the Waverly or other places in the West Village on our street. I’m trying to get him to know downtown, which is younger and fresher than the Upper West Side.”
Speaking of uptown, there’s the matter of that little party Jacobs is hosting with Kate Moss, Anna Wintour, and Justin Timberlake on Monday. Jacobs says that this year the Met ball will have “this kind of El Morocco theme going on.” He also adds that none of the concept is his doing. “It’s Anna’s party,” he said. “She came to us, my partner Robert [Duffy] and I, with a concept. She said, ‘This is the theme we were thinking of.’ And she thought we were really right for it. She asked us if we’d underwrite it. Robert was really keen on it and sort of put it all together and made it work with Anna. Anna’s included me in some of the meetings, etc., but, I mean, she really is astounding in how involved she gets, which is great. It really is the most glamorous party New York has.”
Jacobs says he isn’t worried about what he’ll wear, but is “really worried” about the girls he’s dressing, including Madonna, Winona Ryder, Rachel Feinstein, Victoria Beckham, and Rihanna. “You know, I just want them to be happy,” he said. “I don’t know anybody who wants to, like, dress somebody on their wedding day. It becomes like this one important choice you have to make, so everyone’s thinking, like, ‘What can I wear that will blow everyone away?’ And I don’t know the answer to that. Just look good and feel good and don’t worry about it.” He said he’ll delve deeply into the Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton collections and archives “to make everybody happy.”
And after the Met, it’s time to work on his wedding to Martone. Jacobs says he isn’t planning to go to any gay-marriage rallies, “but I sure am planning to get married.” The wedding should be in June. And despite his penchant for skirts, Jacobs won’t wear one on his wedding day. “We’ll wear tuxedos. We’re both men. What else would we wear?” he said. “I’m hoping New York and New Jersey pass legislation. If it didn’t pass, that would really suck,” he went on. “But if not, we’ll go off to Massachusetts and get married there.”
