“I want more life.” So said the replicant Roy Batty in the original Blade Runner. Ridley Scott’s sci-fi classic was just one part of the source material Jeremy Scott quoted in his pre-spring notes; the Sgt. Pepper’s references are a lot more obvious, though he also mentioned A Clockwork Orange. But Batty’s comment aligns with Scott’s approach to this collection, and to fashion in general. “I never let an opportunity go to express myself with the bravado people expect from me,” he said.
This collection certainly isn’t short on bravado, what with its crayon box–bright color blocking and its Victor Vasarely–inspired optic prints. Scott applied the color blocking to tailoring—trad double-breasted suits and bandleader uniforms alike—and to softer jersey pieces in playful trompe l’oeil, a technique Franco Moschino returned to often. The Vasarely-esque prints were applied to dresses, where the artist’s spatial depth experiments accentuated the models’ natural curves.
Because Scott never does anything by half measures, these super-pigmented, highly graphic clothes were accompanied by bondage masks or elaborate face paint by the makeup artist Kabuki. “They can be a little sinister, a little sexy, a little mysterious—they can have all these different contexts,” Scott said. “I think that’s something that I played with here because of the way things have evolved and what we’ve experienced, and how I can express that through my work.” As we round the corner on Covid Year Three, Scott’s hyperbolic fashion will find its audience.
