Debut in Paris
After graduating in 1996 Scott moved to Paris. While looking for a job in the fashion industry, he was forced to scrounge meals and sleep in the Metro. When he ran into a PR for Jean Paul Gaultier who liked his hair (Scott cut his own hair since he was five), he got a job promoting parties at a nightclub. Not having any luck with fashion jobs, he decided to create his own brand.[2] The following season, in 1997, Jeremy Scott, the brand, made its debut in a bar near Bastille. The show was based on the J. G. Ballard book and David Cronenberg film Crash, with most of the material coming from paper hospital gowns. Scraps of fabric from the Porte de Clignancourt flea market resembling garbage bags were used in the follow-up show, all in black, which was described by Scott as "Blade Runner, trash bags and the apocalypse." The collection was later exhibited in the influential Parisian shop Colette, which has carried Jeremy Scott ever since.[7][8] His third collection, all in white, was a critical hit. It won awards and attracted Mario Testino, the editor of French Vogue, and Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele, a French stylist, art director and photographer. The white show was the first runway appearance of the soon-to-be-supermodel Devon Aoki, who was only 13 at the time.[9] (Twenty years later, the pair would collaborate again on Scott's Autumn/Winter 2016 campaign.[10]) Björk was an early adopter, wearing an angel dress from the white show for her Homogenic world tour. Scott would provide costumes on several of her tours.[11] In the same year Scott made a show about 1980s decadence (sable, shoulder pads, big hair, gold lamé) as maybe the first designer to revive the eighties. The models' unbalanced heels were designed by Christian Louboutin. Opposing the prevalent minimalism, the show was panned by Vogue and others. Scott himself considers "the gold show" as the hardest moment of his career.[12] His 1998 spring collection titled "Duty Free Glamour" featured flight-attendant inspired looks and khaki jackets plastered with logos. Writing in The Times, the fashion critic Cathy Horyn pointed out the original use of the experience of a Midwesterner as a foil to jet set glamour. Karl Lagerfeld said that Scott was the only person working in fashion who could take over Chanel after he left. In 2001 Scott left Paris for Los Angeles. It was seen as a surprising move, since Los Angeles was not yet a fashion capital at the time.[2]
The Adidas collaboration
Scott had cemented his reputation as a cult label with fervid fans, particularly in Asia,[2] but he was still on the fringe of the fashion establishment, as he was considered neither "serious" nor "commercial". He closed one show in 2001 by throwing fake banknotes with his face printed on them into the audience. At the close of another show, he shouted: "Vive l’avant-garde!", and left yellow T-shirts stamped with the message on every seat.[2] In 2006, Scott started his ongoing collaboration with the French leather-goods company Longchamp, which makes bags for front-row guests at his fashion shows.[13] Scott first worked with Adidas in 2002 for the "!Signed" project, for which he created a silk jacquard with a motif of money scattered around with his own likeness replacing that of George Washington. The design was on the Adidas classic high top model, the Forum. The shoe was handmade in the Adidas factory in Scheinfeld, Germany. There were only 100 pairs made: 50 went to Scott and 50 went to Adidas. Scott would revisit the design with Money Wings 2.0 in Fall/Winter 2013.[14]
Creative director at Moschino
In October 2013 Scott became Moschino's creative director. After turning down several other offers, he chose the Italian label because it had a similarly irreverent approach, its founder Franco Moschino seeing fashion as a form of protest.[2] After redesigning the entire Pre-Fall collection, Scott showed his first Moschino collection in fall 2014.[33][34] He re-told the fashion gags of Franco Moschino (rubbish bags, witty slogans, beefeater hats) through the eyes of an American (McDonald's handbags, popcorn dresses, nutrition-label ballgowns, SpongeBob SquarePants fur coats).[35] An example of his proceeding was a vis-a-vis jacket in McDonald's colors (ketchup-red and bright yellow) with a matching quilted leather handbag bearing a golden "M" in the shape of a heart.[13]
Designing for celebrities
An important part of Scott's work has been outfitting show business celebrities such as Beyoncé, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and Nicki Minaj. Some of them, like Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, and CL, have collaborated with him so frequently that they have earned the nickname "the Jezza posse".[34][45] Scott described his work with celebrities: "I understand the language of pop culture, and these people are totems of pop culture."[2] In January 2015, Scott created the costumes for the Super Bowl XLIX Half Time show performance of pop star Katy Perry.[46] Perry introduced his custom bustier on the cover of Rolling Stone.[7]
