“I’m still standing,” declared Jeremy Scott backstage before his spring show, which marked the 20th anniversary of his line. “I did it on my own two feet. I think it’s phenomenal.” It truly is remarkable that after two decades in this industry none of the kid from Kansas City’s wide-eyed, aw-shucks enthusiasm for his work has diminished, nor has that of his devoted following. The appetite for Scott’s joke-laden raver gear remains stoked. He’s a master marketer and humorist who has probably been underestimated all along.
Scott’s having the last laugh, though; to that end, there was a note of maturity in the air. There was no manic crush at the door as there has been in the past, and the set at Spring Studios was relatively sedate by Scott’s standards. (Frankly, the starkness of that room is always a bit of a vibe killer.) His glammed-up party-kid fans — some young, some not so much anymore — were in the audience and his favorite girls were in the show. Devon Aoki opened in a silver glittered moto jacket over a graphic T-shirt dress, lime-green sheer skirt dotted with sequins and silver combat boots. Gigi Hadid, Jourdan Dunn, Joan Smalls, Karlie Kloss, Slick Woods, Liberty Ross and Sofia Ricci wore camo jackets and sweatshirt dresses decorated with graphic cartoon illustrations and glitter. There were sequined hoodies and fluorescent sheer windbreakers that exploded into a cape of sculpted ruffles.
In terms of marking his milestone in the collection, Scott said he went through his archive to assess what he’d done and how to make it interesting to him now. He tweaked T-shirts with multiple neck and armholes from his third collection and built on 3-D tubing contraptions. Proof that his eye for merch and marketing has grown shrewder over the years was a limited edition capsule collection of tees and such printed with classic Scott logos, such as “Keep Fashion Weird” and graffitied “Viva Avant Garde,” a phrase that was featured in his 1999 campaign. Not everything was archival. The final looks of giant 3-D jewels connected over stretchy body-stocking dresses, which he described as “a Calder sculpture that kind of collided with a disco ball,” were completely new. Yet they didn’t register as so weird or out-there. Perhaps that was a sign of the impact of Scott’s work. What was once completely outrageous has become somewhat normalized thanks to him and those he has influenced. Congratulations, Jeremy.