Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1087559
It's a very pure process, then. I feel things. It comes from my heart — and it comes from passion, from love, from passion to express. I don't calculate it in any way. My work is about communicating. I'm not your guy for wanting to sell a million units. I don't have that as my driving force. There's a debate about fashion's role and place in a museum. What do you say to the people who consider fashion frivolous and not high art. What I do is an artistic expression — but I don't take an air of calling myself an artist. My job title is fashion designer, and I have no qualms about that. When you look at the work, it is expressive, and it is artistic. Everyone gets dressed. There's a very visceral thing that happens for people about clothing, and I think that's why people have very strong reactions to things that they like or don't like about clothes — even if they're not going to wear it themselves. You are actually much softer and quieter in person than the work you create. Who is the real Jeremy Scott? I'd rather people say that I was a really nice person than a really nice designer. You just showed Pre-Fall 2019 for women and Fall 2019 for men in Rome, maybe two weeks ago. It was very cinematic. That collection was an homage to Fellini and his body of work … these unique characters, these unbelievable beauties, this very strong Italian, specifically Roman-centric style … So we did the show in one of the soundstages where he actually worked, and I tried to recreate a set from a scene in La Dolce Vita. What's on the agenda post-Dallas? I go home after this for a week. Then I go to New York and have my show. Then two days later, I get on a plane and go to Milan and get ready for the next one, which is showing the women's fall/winter ready-to- wear collection. Then the Oscars … It just never ends. Thoughts on the state of the fashion industry. It's a great time in fashion. There's a lot of diversity. There are a lot of different voices and personalities and visual styles, and a lot of things are all coexisting. It's not being dictated by one small group of people. Moschino Spring 2018, designed by Jeremy Scott KING OF POP up to me. So, yes. It's different for me. I'm used to making a collection for a show, and the clothes going on humans. So, to think of mannequins is not something I was well- versed on. All these things have challenges. It gets the brain going. Does having a retrospective 20 years into your career feel overwhelming? I don't take the word "retrospective" as a heavy word at all. To me, it's just about looking back at work. But, it's just a slice. I feel more like: "Here's a sampling of my offerings." I don't think there's anything heavy or weighted about it. The title of the exhibition is "Viva Avant Garde: A Jeremy Scott Retrospective." Where did that come from? After my third show, I yelled, "Viva Avant Garde!" on the runway out of enthusiasm and youthful joy. But some people got confused — I was in Paris at that time when I started my career — and some French people thought I said, "I am a god!" And that's not what I said. And there's a very big difference. So I thought, to be really clear about this, I would spray paint it on a shirt. That [shirt] became a significant emblem of my work at that moment. It was the most successful thing I was making. It wasn't the very complicated, very fragile, unique clothes that basically only Isabella Blow and Björk could wear. It was this T-shirt you could actually wear … It became a symbolic part of my Paris days. What it means to be avant garde. To challenge. To push the envelope. To try to do something unexpected. To challenge the status quo. To make people think outside the box. To surprise people. Which pieces in the exhibition most embody that spirit? I have a group of paper-doll dresses from my collection for Moschino. Those are very much a walking artistic expression. They're treated like paper dolls. They're all flat with tabs. The backs are completely white. It's a three-dimensional garment, but rendered like an old-fashioned paper doll, with the kind of shading and aspects drawn to make it look like it's curving or shaped. How you switch between designing Jeremy Scott the label and Jeremy Scott who is designing Moschino. If you think about subway trains in New York City, different trains go through the same station, but they have a different final destination. I'm like that station, and the ideas are like the trains — they know where they need to go, and they stay on their tracks. (continued from page 42) 44