I like to take on the thing I don't like at the moment. I like to find something that looks wrong or feels off, something that I would never have done in the past, like brocade. And then all of a sudden, if we can make brocade work, then we've really done something, because I hate it. And that's just a reference. I don't actually hate brocade.

In addition Jacobs oversaw the design of the various women's licensees. In the course of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin in July 2011 Jacobs was the patron of the young talent award “Designer for Tomorrow by Peek & Cloppenburg”. In 1987 Jacobs was the youngest designer to have ever been awarded the fashion industry's highest tribute the Council of Fashion Designers of America's Perry Ellis Award for "New Fashion Talent".

He is the head designer for Marc Jacobs as well as Marc by Marc Jacobs a diffusion line with more than 200 retail stores in 80 countries. Jacobs was on Time Magazine's "2010 Time 100" list of the 100 most influential people in the world and ranked 14th on Out Magazine's 2012 list of "50 Most Powerful Gay Men and Women in America".