'Enfant terrible' Jeremy Scott aims for the top.
Nothing a fashion designer wears for an important appearance is randomly selected. As Jeremy Scott stood backstage at his first U.S. show last week, he was dressed in a shawl-collared tuxedo jacket, a mostly unbuttoned ruffled shirt, Miu Miu sandals, a gaudy rhinestoned eagle necklace and, hanging from his shoulder, a tattered, yellow and white striped cotton tote bag from Giorgio of Beverly Hills.
On anyone else, the bag would just be another rescued relic from the '80s. But on Scott, a 27-year-old Paris-based fashion designer from Kansas City, Mo., it's a point of reference for his spring 2001 collection, an ode to the Giorgio '80s if there ever was one.
The allusions to Giorgio's era of big shoulder pads, bright yellow clothes and loads of accessories sparked '80s memories for many in the audience at Scott's spring 2001 show at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood last Friday.
Scott, one of the few American designers working independently in Paris, is an anomaly in an age when luxury conglomerates dominate high fashion. Five years after graduating from the Pratt Institute in New York, the young designer is gaining credibility, even as his sometimes avant-garde ideas earn scorn, or worse, disinterest.
Though his new collection drew mixed reviews when it debuted three weeks ago in Paris, it nevertheless offered a perspective on the '80s from a person who was too young in that decade to be jaded by it.
Scott's theatrics are hiding a true talent, said Vidal Sassoon, as he stood backstage observing his donated hairdressers coiling hair into a "My Little Pony" look. Sassoon said that Scott may be known as an enfant terrible, or even the Alexander McQueen of Paris, but under it all, "the man's a tailor." Scott also was nominated for a Perry Ellis award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America this year.
He certainly has a wicked wit, which has shown up as a logo print of his name when he was a virtual unknown, or on this season's bathing suits with tall shell collars that surrounded the model's heads. The show here attracted celebrities such as Courtney Love, Luke Wilson, Lisa Marie Burton and Monica Lewinsky, but few stars would have risked certain ridicule by wearing a Jeremy Scott design from his earlier collections. His fall 1998 collection included jackets with irregular, wing-like protrusions and semi-hunchback shoulders, rendered in gold or fur, or a large tentacle that arched over the head and shoulders.
