With every season, there seems to be some air of nostalgia. Why is it important for you to constantly reincarnate the past in the present? I suppose it’s totally natural. My whole goal is to communicate with people, and to communicate we have to use a common language. If I was speaking to you in Chinese, this conversation would be going nowhere, right? Because you don’t under-stand Chinese. I have to find a way to communicate with people, so we’re using iconography that people can wrap their brains around and, from there, depart and make something new.

Ultimately, I want to be able to make things that everyone can understand. Whether they like it or not, whether they wear it or not, most people can look at my show or collection and instantly get the theme. It’s not like, “Oh, well, we think he was talking about German expressionism in the 1920s.” No, they know it’s Mickey fuckin’ Mouse. Whatever I’m doing, they get the point. Now, maybe there’s some subcontext and other things that I’m doing, and that’s fine, because I’m always one to have subverted messages, as long as one message is going across that everyone is getting.

No two of your collections are alike, yet somehow there’s a consistent Jeremy Scott aesthetic. Do you see each season as an opportunity to reinvent yourself? I think I’m forced to, every six months. As a designer, we have no fucking choice—we’re kinda fucked over. I get so jealous of my friends that are musicians or artists, because the time they get to explore is so much more generous than the time I’m allotted. Now that I’m doing this line with adidas, I basically have two collections, twice a year. Of course there are people who are going to read this and say there are companies with resources, but I’m not a company. I’m still an individual, and I’ve kept it that way to maintain integrity. Everything that is designed is designed by me. My hands are on all these things, and that’s why you look at them and you see my vision no matter what, because it is mine. Even if I’m inspired by something, I’m gonna chew it up, eat it and poop it out, and it’s gonna be mine, because I have processed it. That’s something that’s very important to me, even though it’s a much more difficult journey, perhaps, than having a team of people.

What role does identity play in your work? Do your pieces each embody their own identity? I do believe that each piece has its own identity. They become their own thing, and they take on other messages as they’re interpreted by others—like lan-guage itself. Some of them go on to have other lives through pop culture, via pop stars or even a fashion editorial—something that can become memorable and provide a reference for people.

What if you could entirely reinvent yourself, or specify your reincarnation as anything? What would you choose to be? A pop star.

What do you suppose is the best thing about being a pop star? Touching people’s lives, inspiring people. What I do, ultimately, is about touching people’s lives. I can only touch people’s lives to a certain extent with the work that I do. So something like a song will touch more people’s lives than anything, because it doesn’t matter what race, creed, color, nationality or what language you speak.

Then what mark or scar would you like to make on today’s global culture? Just the idea that we should keep trying some-thing new.