Another highlight from the ’90s for the duo, meanwhile, was during the rise of grunge fashion—a look that Jacobs helped define while at Perry Ellis, famously causing a stir with his spring 1993 grunge collection. “It was an exciting period, and necessary,” says Evangelista. “[Fashion] was going in such a bedazzled, opulent [direction]. It was sickening, in a way.” Jacobs adds that he simply wanted to find beauty in the unexpected. “At the time, it was the idea of appreciating and celebrating something beautiful that was never considered beautiful,” he says.
During this time, Evangelista also recalled how people thought the term ’supermodel’ was becoming extinct—a laughable concept now. “There was all this talk about the demise of the supermodel,” says the model, “and that we were ‘over’—and I was like, are we? I was working every day.”
Turns out, Evangelista keeps many of her ’90s treasures in her mother’s home in Canada. “One might call it a basement, but it has windows,” says Evangelista. “I have all of my work—magazines, catalogs, brochures—there, nicely organized. And I had these cedar closets made in France that have the most beautiful clothes in them—Alaïas and Chanels.” Jacobs, too, keeps most of his work in archives. “As a company, we keep most of the collections we’ve done in an archive,” he said. “I also think we have old VHS copies of fashion shows that we’ve never transferred.” To which Evangelista quipped, “You better hurry up!”
They agreed that the secret to their long-standing bond is sincerity, and always being there for each other. “We’ve lost so many people in our industry,” said Evangelista. “As time goes by, I try to hold on to my real friends as much as possible. It’s hard to make real friends in this business, and it takes real commitment to remain friends.”