Jeremy Scott appears in a small video-chat box on my laptop screen wearing a multicolored beanie. From his window, the always-provocative fashion designer talks about iconography, inspiration, reincarnation and identity. He even performs a duet of “I Got You, Babe” with a Cher doll and a C-3PO toy for laughs. This is pretty lively conversation for a box.

If anything, Jeremy Scott is out of the box—way out. His consistently over-the-top collections feature audacious prints and conspicuous pop culture references like King Tut, Mickey Mouse and McDonald’s French fries. With celebrity clients includ-ing Björk, Kanye West and Madonna, and runway shows that have become an annual highlight of Paris fashion week, Scott is a bona fide, love-him-or-hate-him fashion star.
Now with a new sportswear collection for adidas in addition to his own line, he’s taking his message of gonzo fashion freedom to the masses, and he’s bringing a global perspective to the job. “I’ve lived in New York, Japan, Paris and now Los An-geles,” he says, “and there are traces of all these different cultures within me.” In my conversation with Scott, I did my best to find out what exactly all of these influences have added up to.

How does having grown up in the Midwest influence your designs? Does that time in your life still resonate in any way? I definitely think there are a lot of great things about where I grew up. I might not have realized it then, but I definitely realize it now. The fact that I grew up on a farm gave me so much more freedom for creativity than I would have had in another place. I had to create my own toys, my own games. My imagination was so much more active. There was more space to create something that wasn’t so sterile.

Do you feel that sense of exploration still speaks to you? Absolutely. My grandmother, she was always making things, appro-priating things—like bags would be braided into a rug, a tractor seat would become a chair.

Are you still inspired by this idea of giving new life to overlooked or forgotten things? Yeah! I don’t think there is any way I could not view the world in that way. I naturally take things and re-appropriate them and put them in another context. We live in a post-post-postmodern world. There is still the opportunity to create new things—I’m not saying there isn’t. But I mean, yeah, you could create something “new” just to be shocking, but it doesn’t have any relevance. I could make big circles as shoes, and no one has probably ever done it, but you really wouldn’t walk around in them—it’s not attractive. But putting a wing on a shoe, that’s not something that I had seen before.