updated 10:36 p.m. ET March 12, 2007

NEW YORK - Fashion designer Marc Jacobs has entered rehab.

“Marc made the right decision,” Jacobs’ longtime business partner Robert Duffy told Women’s Wear Daily, which reported the story on its Web site Monday.

Jacobs had previously acknowledged in interviews that he abused drugs and alcohol.

“He’d been sober for seven years. When he relapsed, he wanted to deal with it right away,” Duffy said to the industry newspaper. “According to the experts, such a relapse isn’t uncommon. Thankfully, Marc recognized the problem himself and chose to deal with it. Obviously, our prayers are with him.”

The confirmation that Jacobs was at a treatment facility came on the day that Jacobs received two nominations from the Council of Fashion Designers of America for its upcoming awards. He was nominated in the womenswear and accessories categories.

And those honors were on the heels of three well-received previews of fall collections — one for his namesake brand in New York, one for the younger — and less expensive — Marc by Marc Jacobs label in London, and one in Paris for Louis Vuitton, owned by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA.

Jacobs is known as a bellwether for upcoming trends. In New York, his fashion shows are always packed with celebrities, with music stars Rod Stewart, Lenny Kravitz, Joss Stone, Harry Connick Jr. and Debbie Harry most recently lining the runway.

They saw clothes that were long and lean clothes, with a 1920s influence, almost guaranteeing a shift in fashion later this year to a slimmer silhouette.

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