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" Two Brits with successful brands under their belts have taken the helm of a decidedly American brand, after its designer departed his post at a storied French house to concentrate on his namesake label, amidst rumors of an IPO. Sounds like quite the tale. It all made perfect sense at the Marc by Marc Jacobs Fall 2014 runway collection, though, the first under the creative direction of Luella Bartley and Katie Hillier\u2014where a 38-woman march showed a mix of motocross, Japanese anime and refined sophisticate. The pair may have been concentrating more on an &amp;quot;attitude than references&amp;quot; according to Bartley, but any way you look at it, the new Marc by Marc girl appeared to be a lot of fun to be around. Backstage, Marc Jacobs greeted the two with an enthusiastic, &amp;quot;great, it was really, really great.&amp;quot; Talk about a vote of confidence. Hear more from Hillier and Bartley below. HB: What was your inspiration/thought process for the collection?  Luella Bartley: We started with an attitude as opposed to a reference, but along the way we looked at photographs, sport stuff, Japanese culture, traditional and more manga type, modern view of japan and all sorts of things\u2014 but I think that came through gangs of characters and that&amp;#039;s what we wanted to put across. It was very important to get the attitude right to see who she was and we have to build on that in the future.  HB: So who do you see as the marc by marc girl?  Katie Hiller: All of them! All of us out there. We wanted to put a little bit of toughness back into it. you know she&amp;#039;s quite strong. And it&amp;#039;s about a collection versus a wardrobe which is something you Luella said the other day. It all seems to hang together although there are different elements to it.   Luella Barley: As long as she&amp;#039;s got the right attitude she can really be anyone and I think that&amp;#039;s what I liked about the characters. The tailoring at the beginning was layered up, it was sharp...or you can be the girl that&amp;#039;s got the kind of pencil skirt with the little shirt and you know a little more sexy, then you&amp;#039;ve got the kind of kooky big bows and your more ethereal..at the end she&amp;#039;s still tough. HB: What was it like designing the collection together?  Katie Hillier: Very good. We have worked together before, nearly fifteen years. We&amp;#039;ve gone in and out of working together.  Luella Bartley: It&amp;#039;s just really good fun to do it with your friend, because if you do it alone it&amp;#039;s quite sullen, you take on a lot of anxiety\u2014but when you have someone who&amp;#039;s going through the same thing, it&amp;#039;s a lot easier.  HB: Did Marc give you any words of wisdom going into it?  Katie Hillier: We&amp;#039;ve spoken to him quite a lot, really. Everything he says, he just pushes you to do your best. it&amp;#039;s quite inspiring.  Luella Bartley: My favorite part of the job is having him as a boss. Kind of like a dream come true. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/fashion-week/a1620/marc-by-marc-jacobs-fall-2014/>