Lafayette profiles — Jeremy Scott
I remember when I was about 12 years old, I saw the famous Jeremy Scott x Adidas wing sneakers in an Adidas outlet. I remember at the time I thought it was hilarious, without not even knowing it was a collab. Now 10 years later knowing who designed those sneakers, I feel stupid for not buying them.
Jeremy Scott was born in Kansas City in 1974. Different from other designers, he was raised in a suburban family, far from city life and Jeremy grew up as a black sheep. Buying Vogue magazine and being interested in fashion was not seen well for a kid in a place like that. After finishing High School he decided to pursue a career in fashion and went to the Pratt Institute in New York. For the first time, he had some kind of formation in fashion, and shortly after finishing his degree went to live in Paris.
Paris was his dream but it was not easy. He couldn’t get a job nor an internship for any of the big designers, and after getting rejected two times for working for Jean Paul Gaultier, he was about to quit. Instead of losing hope and waiting for the fashion world to open its doors to him, he did it on his own. His first show was done all by himself.
After making a name of himself, he got recruited by Moschino. Scott was attracted by the brand since he was a small kid and was more than pleased for being considered for the role of creative director. His playful/pop-ish style was just the thing Moschino wanted to do to re-birth the brand that was in financial distress. After negotiations, Jeremy Scott changes his house in Los Angeles for an apartment in Milan.
His first collections were heavily criticized. His philosophy is based around the idea of designing is doing something that is far from the comfort zone, strange, unexpected but making it wearable. For his first collection, he interpreted the identity of Mcdonalds. He took the uniforms worn by Mcdonald’s employees, but he made it fashion. He took the boxes and packaging of the food items and interpreted them as purses. Somehow it was making a statement by bringing together the fact that he is American but he is now part of the European scene.
“I only know pop” is what Scott replied in an interview in which they asked him why he always makes this play between fashion and pop culture. He is the representation of the American aesthetic in fashion. He has always been able to have fun with his designs and work with celebrities that share his vision of a much more playful fashion world. This is Jeremy Scott.
