HI JEREMY SCOTT!
in style, by Margo Fortuny, April 30th, 2010
Jeremy: I love your glasses.
Margo: Thank you, I got them in New York. I collect glasses. I know you’re based in Los Angeles now. What’s one of your favourite L.A. places?
Jeremy: The Cinerama Dome. Have you ever been there?
Margo: In Hollywood?
Jeremy: Yeah. I love it. It’s such a great movie theatre and such a wonderful experience to watch a film there, and just the quality of the film and everything. There’s such a film culture in Hollywood that when I go to the movies in other places, it’s just not as nice. It’s perfection because people are such snobs about it there. The Cinerama really does make watching a film so much better, like WOW. You know in New York you could be at the theatre and watching a film and you hear the subway crackling underneath and you’re like “Wait -is this part of the film?” And “Oh now wait this train’s pulling up…” I get so into movies I just totally lose myself. So I’m either screaming or yelling at the screen. I get really into it. I notice everything so if I start hearing the subway and thinking then I’m totally taken out of it. That’s what I love about movies, losing myself. It’s so perfect there.
Margo: Have you been to that place on Beverly that has double features and B movies?
Jeremy: Was it Beverly near Fairfax?
Margo: It’s near Beverly and La Brea. You should go there. It’s a bit of a cruddy theatre but it has amazing double features. And they show the original version of the Warriors every year and they put real butter on the popcorn.
Jeremy: I should make a point of it cause that’s where Tarantino had that premiere. I know he picked all those special theatres that he loves. Yeah I’ll definitely go.
Margo: Are there any films that have inspired you as a designer?
Jeremy: Oh, just millions. One of my favourites is Blade Runner and probably always will be. The vision is so complete and so intelligent in that future. (In our time) no one is wearing only contemporary things. It’s a mix of maybe something you maybe had for a year with something vintage with something that’s brand new. We’re influenced by different decades and things aged, instead of a stark future where everyone is wearing some kind of white A-line dress or something. I thought Blade Runner was so bold. Also I saw the film when I was 7 or 8 in the theatre so it made a big impression. That film will always stay with me.
Margo: What have you been up to since I interviewed you in Paris?
Jeremy: Workin’, workin’, workin’: new collection new season new styles.
Margo: As a designer, you take a lot of fashion risks. For example the three tongue Altitude trainer has received a lot of online commentary. Is that intentional or is it simply the shock of the new? Is it your way of being mind expanding?
Jeremy: I definitely think it’s important to always expand one’s mind. I try to do that as a designer, to try to open people’s imaginations and make them think differently. I put wings sprouting from the shoe or three tongues on but at the same time I just think it’s beautiful. It’s not just done in a purely provocative sense.
Margo: Where do you get some of your inspiration for these designs? The idea just comes to you and you start drawing it on a piece of paper?
Jeremy: Yeah, a shoe should have 3 tongues. There’s always labour in making something and fine-tuning it and the details and the proportions, but as far as the ideas themselves it’s all very natural.
Margo: Speaking of fashion risks, have you ever been to Boombox? (the legendary nightclub.)
Jeremy: One time when I was in London I was there. They threw a party for me when I was on the cover of ID. Richard (Mortimer) and the crew. I went to probably one of the last Boomboxs.
Margo: I was there once and there was a table with settings and plates on it and a guy on all fours under it. Then he stood up and walked to the bar and he had the whole table attached to him.
Jeremy: Oh wow.
Margo: He had this amazing style. I was wondering what’s the craziest style combination you’ve ever seen?
Jeremy: You might have just taken the cake with that one. The craziest one I’ve ever seen… I don’t know… now that’s stuck in my mind. You’ve burned an image in my head. Was he naked?
Margo: No. He was wearing a suit but it looked like he was sitting under the table and it was like “why is that guy sitting under the table?” Then he stood up and the whole thing was attached to him it was like an art piece, all the plates were set and everything.
Jeremy: That takes the cake. I mean I guess the cake’s on the table. I can’t think of anything to top that one.
NEW YORK F/W 10/11 – JEREMY SCOTT SHOW