Last month, Vogue posted a video from inside Jeremy Scott fan Joey Arias’s filled-to-bursting closet. Over 10 years he’s bought 700 pieces, sometimes trading longed-for items with fellow fans on Instagram. What makes a collector so devoted? Arias, who is a Dallas-based clinical operations manager for a mobile dental company, responds to the exuberance of Scott’s work. “I know people who use fashion as kind of an armor or a shield,” he says, “but wearing Jeremy’s clothes, not only am I being truly myself, they also act like a welcome mat. People are just drawn to it, and they want to ask about it.”
That’s one of Scott’s talents as a designer: His fashion shows are an enthusiastic embrace, where others metaphorically cross their arms and say ‘you’re not invited.’ His other talents are many, but the ones on display in this collection are his commitment to a theme and his ingenuity. The theme in question this season is tailoring; the lookbook opens with a group of suits for men and women in haberdasher’s scraps collaged together into single- and double-breasted suits, and silk jacquard neckties sewn into natty vests and knee-length skirts, as well as short and long party dresses.
The worsted wools, gabardines, and houndstooths give the outing a more serious demeanor than the inflation-themed pool floaty collection he sent down Moschino’s Milan runway for spring, but there’s plenty of humor in these pieces too, whether it’s the lapels of top coats that curve up around the head to form dramatic hoods, or the le smoking elements—cummerbunds, bow ties, satin revers—that he supersized on his evening wear.
With awards season heating up, it seems likely that some of these numbers will be making the red carpet rounds. The two likeliest: a strapless black gown whose heart-shaped bodice is embroidered with gold hearts of all shapes and sizes topped by a cropped bolero, and, for a more extroverted nominee, the le smoking Scott transformed into a curvaceous skirt, its lapels curving upward to frame the torso, with two red corsages forming the bra top. A conversation piece, for sure.
