Marcellous L. JONES is a renowned international fashion critic, television presenter/producer, fashion consultant, fashion week organizer and university professor of sociology and English. He is also a highly sought-after commentator on contemporary fashion and a specialist on emerging European fashion markets.
In 2004 Marcellous L. Jones founded his MLJ MEDIA, LLC, parent company and which publishes the
TheFashionInsider.com Magazine. Revolutionary upon its 2006 launch, it became the first online publication to offer fashion show reviews, news, interviews, videos and an encyclopedia of the most legendary models of all-time.
In 2003 he launched his first television program, FASHION INSIDER for the southeastern television market in the United States. From 2007 to 2015, he hosted & executive produced the MEN’S FASHION INSIDER television show, which celebrated and promoted global menswear. It ran weekly in the U.S.A. Canada, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, etc.
He has regularly interviewed designers from the most prestigious fashion houses (Jean-Paul Gaultier, Kenzo, Versace, Thierry Mugler, Canali, Karl Lagerfeld, Christian Lacroix, Brioni, Ermenegildo Zegna, Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano, Lanvin, Dirk Bikkembergs, Valentino, Vivienne Westwood, Dsquared², Zuhair Murad, Burberry, John Richmond, Issey Miyake, Etro, Fendi, Ermanno Scervino, Loewe, Iceberg, Sergio Rossi, Chapurin, Alexandre Vauthier, etc.)
His A-list celebrity interviews include Elton John, John Malkovich, Victoria Beckham, Helen Mirren, Mickey Rourke, Usher, Milla Jovovich, Janet Jackson, Claudia Schiffer, Kylie Minogue, Tyson Beckford, Duffy, Natalia Vodianova, Kanye West, Chris Brown, Catherine Deneuve, Queen Latifah, Kelly Rowland, Emily Blunt, Dita von Teese, Joan Collins, Jada Pinckett Smith, Inès de la Fressange, Fergie, Pedro Almovodar, Will I. Am (Black Eyed Peas), Kelly Osbourne, Lara Fabian, Bob Sinclar, David Trézéguet, James Denton, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Hamilton, Noemie Lenoir, etc.
FASHION WEEK ORGANIZER
On October 31, 2013, Marcellous L. Jones participated launch of the Serbia Fashion Week (SFW). During his 3.5 years tenure as Vice-President for International Development, he led its attendance growth from 3K to 35K and from 12 designers to 50 designers. Today it is Europe’s 5th largest fashion week. In Dec. 2015, he joined the advisory board of the Global Sustainable Fashion Week Budapest, Hungary. And in October 2016, he became honorary presidency at the Romanian Fashion Philosophy Fashion Week in Bucharest, Romania. In March 2017 joined the board of advisors at thefashion-oriented American television channel, FNL NETWORK.
EUROPEAN CONSORTIUM FOR EMERGING FASHION
In 2016 he initiated an international consortium composed of independent fashion weeks, events planners and schools, whose purpose is to foster sustainable growth through cooperation. He leads missions to the European Union’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium where he and his colleagues of fashion week organizers and politicians lobby the European Commission for funding.
PROFESSOR & PUBLIC SPEAKER
In September 2020, he joined the sociology department at the prestigious Sorbonne University in Paris. There he lectured on issues of particular interests to millennials (#MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter, women’s rights, etc.). Today he teaches English courses several times a year at the ESME school of engineering in Paris.
Marcellous Jones is a highly sought-after expert on fashion. He regularly speaks at prestigious fashion schools and fine arts academies in the USA, Europe, Russia and Asia. His topics are designed to help young designers deal with the rigors of presenting for the first time to international press and media. He also coaches them on how to prepare their own initial press kits and how to cope with negative reviews:
PAST GUEST LECTURING APPEARANCES
ART TALK – Keynote Speaker on Fashion – Post-Covid (Moscow, Russia)
St. Petersburg Fashion Week (Russia)
Serbia Fashion Week (Serbia)
American University of Paris (France)
Academy of Fine Arts (Minsk, Belarus)
Academy of Fine Arts (Lviv, Ukraine)
Savannah College of Art & Design (USA)
Clark Atlanta University (USA)
Balkan Fashion Week (Bulgaria)
FORMAL EDUCATION
1995 Morehouse College – Bachelor’s of Arts in French
1996 Georgia State University – Bachelors of Arts in Political Science
1997 Middlebury College – Masters of Arts in French Studies
2001 Université de Paris I / La Sorbonne – Advanced Masters in International Relations & Diplomacy
ACADEMIC RESEARCH PAPERS:
2001 – NMD: The Reasons for Which the United States Seeks to Develop the National Missile Defence Program and Its
Implications for U.S. National Security
1997 – The Development of the Modeling Industry Since the 1950s.
HONORS & AWARDS
In honor of the 10th year anniversary of creation of TheFashionInsiderr.com Magazine, the St. Petersburg Fashion Week honored both Marcellous L. Jones and the publication with a recognition award in October 2016. A week later in the Romanian Fashion Philosophy made Jones its honorary president as it recognized him too for this 10th Anniversary.
Mr. Jones dedicates much time to charitable activities such as feeding the homeless and poor in France, sponsoring Christmas gifts for underprivileged kids in the USA and working with the Friends of the World charity in Poland. And on May 27, 2012 Jones along with fashion personalities Patrizia Gucci and Ewa Minge became the organization’s first recipients of the AMICUS Humanitarian Award.
In 2006 Dr. John Eaves wrote on Marcellous L. Jones in his book Speakers of the House: Morehouse Men Reflect on their Journey to Manhood. The book is a biography of the men having graduated from the prestigious all-male and historically black Morehouse College. Jones shared pages with other illustrious Morehouse alumni such as Nobel Peace Prize recipient Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Academy Award nominated director Spike Lee; former Health & Human Services Secretary, Dr. Louis Sullivan; Atlanta’s first black mayor, Dr. Maynard Jackson, and Oscar-nominated actor, Samuel L. Jackson, etc.