Scott Watts is just 21-years-old and is on the brink of releasing of his third collection with his label, GALLERY 909. Scott is young, idealistic, and full of ideas about clothes, what they mean, and how we can approach them conceptually.
But Scott is also untrained, a fashion industry outsider, who started off working in the visual arts and grew up wanting to be a software engineer. He’s yet to be chewed up and spat out, still feeling free to interpret fashion’s codes and systems with fearlessness. He’s a star on the rise, crafting idea-driven clothes, a designer who sees GALLERY909 as a vehicle for his aesthetic philosophies, rather than pushing a straight up fashion brand.
“When we’re taught things, we’re kind of boxed in and gain the impression that if its not done a certain way it cannot be done,” Scott explains of how he developed his natural but singular approach to design. “I pay no mind to it. I began my career in the visual arts, so my approach is that of an artist before that of a formal fashion designer.”
The latest collection was born out of a time of change in the designer’s life, hence the title, Evening Star, signaling the end of one day and a new dawn. “Lately there have been a lot of changes in every aspect of my life,” Scott explains, “as well for the label. I feel as if its the evening of who I was, the day is dawning on my new self.” This has led him to explore clash and contrast in the collection. Contrast between fabrics — between the man made and the natural — clashing between futurism and nostalgia, setting and aesthetic, the pieces are irreverent but full of depth. They reference the stark loucheness of the early 90s in their cut and silhouette, but the fabrics, which slip between natural and synthetic, hint at a more exciting present. They seem both other worldly and out of place, but right-at-home on the streets of Chinatown in the lookbook.
“GALLERY909 really revolves around the concept of being its own world and its own entity,” Scott explains. “I wanted to show that it wasn’t a place far off or out of reach or a place of fairy tale, it’s right amongst us.”
Credits
Text Felix Petty
Photography June Canedo
Styling Scott Watts