On Wednesday, Marc Jacobs took the stage at the 92nd Street Y for the latest in the discussion series Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis. The two chatted about everything under the sun, from Daisy to drugs, in an open conversation that seemed to have no limits. Except, that is, recording of any kind. Normally such a trivial requirement wouldn’t even enter our consciousness, but perhaps being so far uptown and fearful of a prep-school headmistress rapping our knuckles, we obliged. Thus we furiously long-handed the following things you may not know about the disarmingly honest designer…

He’s an Aires, but he doesn’t believe in astrology. “But I do believe anything is possible.”

As a teenager he’d bring his books to Studio 54 and go straight to high school in the morning. “I think one of your previous guests was there at the same time.” (That would be Tom Ford)

He wants his next tattoo to be ManBearPig from South Park. “I like colorful tattoos. I never saw tattoos as a dark or ritualistic thing.”

Robert Duffy has a “1984” tattoo to mark the year their partnership began. “We’ve never been lovers, never even kissed on the lips.”

When he started at Perry Ellis at 25, no one believed that he was the boss. “I remember the first day I showed up. I had a motorcycle. I pulled up and they said deliveries are around the corner.”

He met Victoria Beckham after seeing her on the cover of a newspaper carrying a counterfeit Louis Vuitton bag.

He’s had a few public meltdowns, but “I don’t have anger issues. I don’t throw cell phones. I don’t hurt other people. I hurt myself.”

Daisy, his best-selling perfume, is named after his dog, who’s named after Daisy Buchannan from The Great Gatsby. A fragrance for Louis Vuitton is also in the works. It will be based on “my favorite character in my favorite book by my favorite author.”

After bouts with alcohol and drug abuse, he’s soberish, but doesn’t completely abstain. “I wouldn’t say I’m completely sober. I’m not perfect…well, I’m perfectly imperfect the way I am. Yeah, I may have a glass of wine, and maybe a couple of whiskeys. Maybe I’ve smoked a joint or other things. But I’m mostly sober.” 

He just wants to entertain you. “I wouldn’t bow at the end of a show, or even put on a show, if I didn’t want to entertain people.”

Each collection is a reaction to the season before. “I’m not a very linear thinker.”

The secret to his success? “What’s worked for me is being passionate and not giving up. And when I don’t believe in myself, turning to people who do believe in me.”