Jeremy Scott’s Long-distance Design Relationship With Berlin

Most designers would find such a project daunting: To create 500 costumes for a theatrical spectacular that is part-cabaret, part-circus, with a budget of $14 million, more than 100 performers and lashings of Swarovski crystals.

But not fashion designer Jeremy Scott, who has been conscripted to design the next so-called “grand show” at Berlin’s Friedrichstadt-Palast theater. The biggest challenge so far? “Jet lag,” the Los Angeles-based designer told WWD wryly, during his brief visit to the German capital this week.

Although he’s dressed some of the world’s best-known performers, including Madonna and Lady Gaga, Scott said the Berlin show “Blinded by Delight,” which will open in October, is the biggest such project he’s ever worked on.  

Here, Scott discuss his vision for the project.

WWD: How did you first get involved with “Blinded by Delight”?

Jeremy Scott: They [the Friedrichstadt-Palast] had reached out in the past but I was always really too busy. But this time it felt like there was more of a heartfelt passion coming from the director. Oliver [Hoppmann, director of the show] voiced that he felt it was very inspired by my designs, my world, and he felt there was no one but me that could do this. So [Scott laughs] I felt a little pressure.

WWD: What was it about your work he liked so much?

J.S.: You should probably ask him this. But my impression was that there was a joy, a whimsical or fantasy element, that he felt related. Or else he was just really good at selling me on it.

WWD: You said earlier that the offer came around a year ago and you’ve been working on this a while already. Yet you’re based in Los Angeles and production is obviously in Berlin. How have you navigated the long-distance creative relationship?

J.S.: I’ve worked extensively with people who are far away from me for, like, my whole design career. In a 20-something-year career with Adidas, I think I’ve been to their headquarters in Herzogenrath [southern Germany] twice. Even during my tenure at Moschino, I didn’t live in Italy. I went there to work but maintained my studio in Los Angeles.

WWD: So how does the design process work at a distance?

J.S.: Images, text and video. I’ll send the director my drawings and pictures and once they’re approved, then I work with the costume department here. They will then have some more defined questions for me. Like, what kind of fabric do you think that will be? And that’s a print, how did you envisage that? Do you want to do that print with your team in Los Angeles or do you want us to try?

The majority [of the production] is being built here. There are a handful of pieces I’m having built in Los Angeles. Very extravagant, one-of-a-kind pieces. With those we felt we were better to work with people I’ve worked with before, so I can be really on top of that visually.

The staff here produce work of excellent quality. They have the credibility and the craftsmanship and the chops to do it. The hair and makeup department here is phenomenal and are doing all the wigs I’m designing. And the milliner has been able to bring to life, and even further improve, my vision.

I love the collaborative effort, working with everyone, and trying to bring all this to life. I think it’s phenomenal that it’s all under one roof.

WWD: Obviously you can’t give too much away as the theater keeps everything very much under wraps until the first performance. But what sort of references are you looking at for inspiration?

J.S.: I’m referencing the story that’s being told but within that, also Old Hollywood, Busby Berkeley musicals, and also my own archive, my own design history, or aspects adjacent to it. I’ve also worked with Swarovski since the beginning of my career — originally with Nadja Swarovski herself and with [British stylist] Isabella Blow.

WWD: These “grand shows” seem to combine a lot of different things: theater, rock musical, cabaret and also something like a circus. Is there anything particularly challenging about this project?

J.S.: It’s a bit of everything. So that was something for me to wrap my brain around. I’m more narrative. The way I look at my fashion shows, I’m more like a director looking at a screenplay and trying to bring that character to life — even if that was in a 15-minute [runway] show. So I had to try to understand the nature of this creation. There’s a narrative. But there are all these other aspects too.

WWD: How does it compare to putting together a collection or a runway show?

J.S.: I don’t think I think of it that way. Maybe little mini capsule collections? Little vignettes? I guess I don’t put it in the fashion context in my head because I’m not doing just one thing. It is theater.

And this could be a bit like doing, you know, costumes for Rihanna’s world tour. Because there’ll be 15 songs and she will be [dressed as] different people for different things. So for one, she’s gold and bling-bling because that’s the mood that she and the musical director put together. And I have to fold into that. Then she’s going to be this other flirty version, singing ballads. So then I need to be softer and more romantic.

Anytime I work with a theater or with a performer or something of that nature, there’s already a predetermined screenplay whereas in [fashion design] I’m the director, and I’m the costumer. That’s why it’s very different in my brain.

WWD: Is one more fun than the other?

J.S.: I’m enjoying myself. Both are just different.

WWD: You’ve designed for and dressed a lot of well-known performers, everyone from Madonna, Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus to Björk and Lady Gaga. Is there anything in particular you’ve learned from dressing those stars, that you’re putting to good use here in Berlin?

J.S.: I’ve learned along the way — and I continue to learn — that each individual performer is different. I really think that’s the main thing.

From my very first costume for Björk, which was for her “Homogenic” tour, where she loved a dress from my third collection and wanted me to adapt it for the stage. She needed to be able to sing, to have space to actually expand and contract her diaphragm. Then the next performer I worked for, Madonna, needed to be able to move because she was so much more about dance. So it’s not only about the look, it’s also about the performer being able to do their job.

Each event is different too, whether it’s a stage performance for one night only, or nightly performances, or a red carpet, or a film. There are things you can get away with in film, where you can hide things, and there’s a little bit of latitude. Or there’s the red carpet, where there’s literally no latitude.

So it’s really all those things I feel I’ve learned along the way. And I’m sure there are things I’m learning here too, even though I might not be able to articulate them to you yet. I mean, I hope to continually learn — at least, until they throw dirt on my coffin.

WWD: In the past, the Friedrichstadt-Palast has commissioned other international designers to work on their “grand shows.” Your predecessors include Jean Paul Gaultier, Thierry Mugler and Christian Lacroix.

J.S.: So do I feel pressure? No. I feel security in the fact that I am uniquely me and I’m going to deliver that. I feel very confident in that and hopefully that will also please and delight the audience.

WWD: The costumes are such an important part of these “grand shows” and obviously the producers at Friedrichstadt-Palast know the value of that because of the designers they have involved. Do you feel like, in some way, your designs will be a character in this show?

J.S.: I have never thought about it really. But maybe you’re right. We’ll have to wait and see once people have seen the show!