Usually, brand extensions are not as marketed as Jacobs’ or Lauren’s ones, let’s face it the most institutional brands would mostly advertize and promote these on other channels. They do not fully associate with their diffusion/cosmetics/eyewear lines etc. These would usually have their own platform and appear as distinct branches of the whole business. If you look at Chanel and Chanel Beauty for instance or Saint Laurent and YSL beauty (not even carrying the same name) they have their own separate and distinct communication platforms/strategies. The offer is much more segmented. And, if we take a look at the consumer: being able to afford a Saddle bag doesn’t necessarily mean you would be able to afford a full-on Dior outfit, do you even want to? Aspiring to a Louis Vuitton bag is one thing, but it’s less frequent to find someone who is really found of their jewelry. I would argue that Marc Jacobs relied too much on its name  which undermined the aspirational aspect of the luxury brand. If the brand has learned for its mistakes, it still tends to associate every little thing to Marc Jacobs. Indeed, Marc Jacobs would promote Heaven on their own Instagram and Facebook, they would use the same models and icons. We would be able to see Ecco2K wearing Heaven but also being the face of Marc Jacobs’ last Eyewear collection, Kate Moss and her iconic Pink hair in Jacobs’ campaign and on Heaven’s feed, Gabriette, Georgia Palmer etc. It’s still difficult for baby Heaven to fly on its own. 

  It’s quite important to notice that if Marc Jacobs opens several boutiques and multiplies its flagships worldwide at this point (2010’s), the brand also straightens it presence in outlets. And we love outlets, but we cannot but underline how damageable they can be to a brand. It’s not only because it becomes more and more accessible, but mostly because a brand only relying on its name and discounted products cannot survive. Again, look at Ralph Lauren.  Distinction and differentiation are core to the luxury industry and Marc Jacobs failed to bring that to its costumer. The thing is, Marc Jacobs Int. was doing well, financially speaking, but in 2017, things have changed, Bernard Arnaud confesses being more concerned about the future of the brand than of Trump’s presidency. The brand is now one of the least performing of the group and registers around €61M annual losses. Marc Jacobs’ menswear line is canceled by Jean-Jacques Guiony (appointed financial director of the brand) and several boutiques are shutting their doors. Basically, at this point, Marc Jacobs is quite dead, the designer even confesses being unable to understand his audience needs. 2018 marks the beginning of a new era for the New Yorker. He revives is now infamous “Grunge” collection, the token of his glory (though it had never been commercialized by Perry Ellis) and gives us paradoxically brand new “archives”. It’s a success. He quite understands the revival of heroin-chic and grunge fashion allowed by Tumblr niche-aesthetics and the ever-growing 90’s nostalgia the youth is experiencing. He associates with millenials and Gen Z supermodels, just like back in the days when Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss walked the show, the collection’s lookbook is shot with modern-days supermodels such as Gigi Hadid and Mariacarla Boscono. “Redux Grunge Collection 1993/2018” is what we didn’t know we needed. What’s revolutionary about this collection is that, back in the 90’s, it brought grunge to the catwalks. It redefined our perception of “high fashion” and “luxury” ready-to-wear. When Jacobs introduces this collection in 1992, he’s certainly not the only one inducing this shift, for instance, Anna Sui does so as well. But, through this, high-end clothing becomes not only limited to special occasions or distinctively well-off people - subcultures gain their seats amongst the luxury industry. It seems that Heaven is the perfect continuation of the “Redux Grunge 1993/2018” collection. The Gen-Z focused diffusion line capitalizes on the 90’s underground-culture aesthetics and Harajuku fashion. Again, Heaven is “brand new” vintage but still speaks to us, kind of like UNIF did at first. To be honest, Heaven’s marketing and diffusion strategy are smart. The brand only has one real boutique in L.A and has its own gallery. Heaven’s physical stockists are well-known multi-brand retailers such as DSM (New York, L.A, London) or Shibuya Parco in Tokyo. Heaven’s only available in selected areas of the world such as the US, the UK, Japan, and China. Otherwise, the brand thrives on e-commerce an only has a few and well selected corners, it’s quite exclusive. Its distribution model is mainly based on Direct-To-Consumer e-commerce, true to its image: Heaven’s a digital native-focused brand. 

  Heaven originates from a now long-term collaboration between Marc Jacobs and the genius bootlegger Ava Nirui. Followed by 206k people on Instagram, Niuri started her career at Vans and Opening Ceremony, she has worked for Dazed since 2015 and was Helmut’s Lang Digital Editor as well. Their first collaboration dates to 2017 when Jacobs and Nirui worked on a capsule collection “Mark Jacobes”. Nirui is a millennial, yet she resonates with Gen Z through a well-curated 90’s inspired and melancholic à la Gregg Araki aesthetic. She also shows a real passion for streetwear and underground sub-cultures. Both her proximity with Gen Zs and admiration for them allow her to understand their thought process and inspirations. She claims that: “The younger generation is just so innovative. They’re so funny, crafty, and experimental. I learned through the behavior that I see on TikTok that younger kids are very climate-conscious and are more into thrifting.” When interviewed by British Vogue in 2020. 
  Nirui mentions our passion for thrifting and that’s what Heaven gives us: brand new vintage-inspired gems, yet at a certain price ($150 > $600 for the Kiki Boots for instance). Regarding this aspect, it’s quite interesting to notice that Heaven minimizes purchase friction. Why would you spend $250 and 3-5 hours of your life thriftshopping while they’re already providing with unique pieces. Unique enough to be the main piece of your outfit. Well, I believe Heaven’s attractive for that main reason. Our generation strives on authenticity, uniqueness, distinction but we also feel so much closer to our idols when we emulate their styles and outfits. It makes us feel like it could be us, someday, we could be that person – because we could, with enough effort and strategy, having a platform is feasible. Heaven garments and accessories appear as both : A) an opportunity to elevate your look and B) a direct access to vintage-inspired ready-to-wear. But Heaven’s not about to replace our passion for thrifting (hoarding?), it’s there to help us being unique. The Financial Times describes the brand as such: “With its nostalgic undercurrent and tangled web of pop culture references, Heaven has resonated with millennials who, like Nirui, fondly remember Marc Jacobs in its 1990s and 2000s heyday, with its grunge pedigree and quilted « It » Stam bags. To that generation, Heaven has a strong whiff of Marc by Marc Jacobs, the entry-level line that for many represented a first step into the Marc Jacobs world, and which was discontinued in 2015. But Heaven also appeals to Gen Zs, who seem to revel in nostalgia just as much as millennials and have developed and eclectic and fluid fashion taste mixing vintage references with current trends”. The “polysexual” label capitalizes on our need for authenticity and exclusivity through elevated ready-to-wear garments. 

 The thing is Heaven gives us what we needed when we were a bit younger and already into cultural niches and aesthetics, when we were reading/gathering inspirations from FRUiTS Magazine, Dazed, i-D and creating moodboards on Tumblr, watching Araki’s and Larry Clark’s movies that no one around us understood. As our generation grew more culturally aware thanks to the internet, those things are now common references amongst our communities. The “weirdo” has gotten trendy, and several brands resonate with it. Heaven’s success is, in a way, conditioned by the multiplication of “core-aesthetics” we can encounter while scrolling online as well as by the revival of maximalism and layering allowed by our “image-based culture”. Everything is culturally significant in this brand, and it makes it even more intimate and cool. 

The brand is not a Fashion Week-focused brand, it also tends to go against seasonality and “drops” its collections. By referring to “drop-culture” and anti-seasonality it directly reinforces the exclusivity of its collections and aesthetic. If the “drop” has become mainstream, it remains a very effective distribution strategy based on temporal pressure and consumer’s aspirational and compulsive purchases. To me, Heaven’s first drop is a culturally significant masterpiece, signed by a collaboration with Shoichi Aoki (founder of FRUiTS Magazine). It directly brings us back to “the good old days” when we sought inspirations in Harajuku fashion and Japanese sub-styles over the internet, read Tavi Gevinson’s fashion blog or Marlena’s Self-Constructed-Freak. This first collaboration aims to be culturally significant, and the brand justifies it as such: « FRUiTS served as a beacon of inspiration to designers and stylists throughout the ensuing decade. In a time before fashion blogs and street style photography at Fashion Week, Aoki’s magazine was the portal through which such integral movements as Harajuku Girls, Gothic Lolitas, and Ganguro Girls were transmitted to the world.”.
Heaven multiplies its collaborations with well-established cultural references whether they are art pieces, celebrities or media (FRUiTS, Fallen Angels (Wong Kar-wai 1995), Pamela Anderson and Kyle MachLachlan, Climax Books). It initiates collaborations with niche and popular artists such as the hairstylist Tomohiro Kono, better known as Tomikono Wig (116k on Instagram) or the multidisciplinary artist Eri Wakiyama (19.5k on Instagram). The brand also collaborates with Drain Gang’s co-founder Bladee. In its gallery, it hosts a “Virgin Suicide” exhibition and displays several “unseen elements of the production”. It collaborates with Isabella Burley’s (Acne Studios Chief Marketing Officer) through Climax Books and establishes itself as a reference of the new-yorker neo-underground culture. Heaven diffuses culture. 
So, Jacobs and Nirui’s label is not only based on garments, but it also educates us, resonates with our references, it creates a real dialogue between the brand and its consumers. Whatever niche you’re part of - you can find a bit of Heaven in it. In fact, this is easily noticeable on the brand’s Instagram. Heaven doesn’t only share its drops and collections, it also shares some artistic references, side projects and “slice of life” (events pictures, “friends” visiting the store etc.) and archives pictures (from Marc Jacobs golden days for instance). Its Instagram is well curated and participates to the aspirational side of the brand. We do wanna be cool like the Heaven girlies and the Heaven boyz whether we admit it or not, because we watched those movies, and listen to that music, we read and seek for these archives’ books... It is safe to say that the brand is “iconic” in two ways: it’s culturally significant and depicts Gen Zs’ subcultures and sub-styles in a brilliant way, but it also relies on a well-thought semantic network and echoes to our personal references (iconicity). 

Whether we like it or not, we do feel close to the brand because of the amount of familiar face we encounter on Heaven’s feed and website. The brand benefits from the icons its partners with, from Doja Cat to Charlie XCX or even Pamela Anderson and Kyle MachLachlan. Again, Heaven goes for the culturally significant idols, no matter their age, it thus proceeds to create some sort of transgenerational reach and appeal. Pamela Anderson and Kyle MacLachlan, James Duval or Kate Moss are Pop culture references and personalities we’ve grew up with. Doja Cat and Charlie XCX are people we are listening to on the daily. 
Jacobs’ sub-brand also gathers several underground icons and internet celebrities in its campaigns. In September 2022, the brand posts a class picture with Gabriette, Stella Lucia de Opito, Yasmine Moon, Megsuperstarprincess, Jazell (@uglyworldwide), Mei Kawajiri (@nailsbymei) etc. Jacobs and Nirui figure there as well as part of the “students”. This class picture well describes Heaven’s DNA, it’s fluid, underground, weird-girl vibes, edgy, I mean we could use all the cool qualificatives we could find to describe it. Again, with the familiar faces, Heaven’s feed is full of this fine mix between “old” celebrities and current ones. We would then find: Bella Hadid, Iris Law, Lily McMenamy, Beabadoobee, Devon Lee Carlson, Vegyn, Lil Uziu, Kate Moss as well as her daughter Lila, Ecco2K and Bladee, Christina Ricci, Olivia Rodrigo, Yung Lean and even the Tumblr Icon and musician Sky Ferreira. Well, Heaven not only plays with current trends, but it also connives with us on an emotional level: it appeals to our Tumblr-era, to our teenage years. 
Heaven’s brand activations are also a great opportunity to gather all the “cool-kids” in the same place, and it makes us wanna be there. In April 2022, the brand hosted an event with i-D in New York, Ecco2K and Bladee were performing there (accessible on RSVP). It has also hosted a “drive-in” projection of NOWHERE (Araki’s masterpiece, 1997) in September 2020. Again, Heaven reasserts how aspirational it is, you’d wish you had been there. 

In the end, Heaven is marketing genius, it is aspirational and culturally significant. It is quite singular, and Gen-Z focused. It communicates in our terms and echoes to our references. Its main target is easy to identify, it talks to “weird-girls”, Tumblr aficionados, niche fashion connoisseurs. It benefits from the ever-growing segmentation of fashion-styles and subdivision of aesthetic categories our generation has created. It thrives on our 90’s cool kids’ nostalgia because it is made by those 90’s cool kids themselves. 
Yet, it is important to remind ourselves of the critics that have been emitted: the brand would profit of Japanese subcultures and Harajuku fashion. It’s “brand new” vintage capitalizing on independent and niche creators. It would have stolen Heav3n’s (@shopheav3n) identity and would have marketed discriminated communities’ identities and creations into something cool and edgy. But if Heaven’s benefiting from our progressive ego dissolution into core-aesthetic and over-categorization it remains the product of a 90’s icon and one of his disciples. Nirui says it in the Financial Times: “I’m obsessed with Marc. I work for him, but I am also, genuinely, a Marc Jacobs superfan.”. The brand doesn’t only sell us garments based on micro-trends, it tends to identify as much as it can with its consumer and audience. In the end, Marc Jacobs rose back from the dead, but we can wonder whether thriving on a romanticized version of the past is a sustainable model? 
xoxo. 

- Cyana-Djoher