Just because Marc Jacobs is on Facebook, it doesn't mean the rest of the design world has to be. The hugely successful fashion designer has long been blessing us with ever-changing relationship status updates, so we can keep immediate, obsessive tabs on who he may or may not be boffing at the time. It's a public existence! (Or, at least public when people actively go looking for it). And it's one that other fashion designers don't exactly aspire to. The Observer spoke to three colleagues of Jacobs at an event last night, all of whom seem wary of Jacobs' internetting ways.

Menswear designer Thom Browne, a quiet and elegant man by all accounts, says (with an eye roll, apparently): "I don't have a Facebook page. I have no interest in people knowing my personal life." Noble! Though we may know one small detail about Browne, despite his efforts. Reportedly, like Jacobs, he's had his own younger (lots younger) fella in the past, a Columbia University dreamboat who was a springy 19-years-old to his 42. Though, Browne wouldn't necessarily recognize the parallel: "I have no idea what's going on with Marc Jacobs," he says. "I hope he's having a good time." Heh. Oh, he is.

Another geigh fashionmaker, Michael Bastian, uses Jacobs as a model of what not to do: "Well, I don't have a Facebook account for that exact reason!" he crows. But, he does concede that there is a kind of attendant notoriety that comes with Jacobs' level of success. "But you also don't have a choice at a certain point," he says. "When you become such a superstar like that—I'm nowhere near that—that's part of the price that you pay. Either you don't give a shit and you roll with it, or you don't live your life." Yet another 'mo, Liz Claiborne designer John Bartlett, was scared away from the public eye years ago and has no intention of returning. After reading about a difficult breakup in Page Six, an experience he found "horrifying," he is now happily and quietly "married." Oh, good.

So these boys just don't need the damn Facebook and are perhaps better off for it. Maybe when the inevitable Robot Wars come and we're all forced to sign up for Facebook as some sort of government conscription initiative, those three can just leave the relationship status space blank or something.

Menswear Designers Roll Eyes at Marc Jacobs' Facebook Exploits [NYO]