February 19, 2021: Gucci has launched a selection of special pieces from its Epilogue collection incorporating the work of American fashion designer Ken Scott, who resided in Milan in the 1960s and 70s, where he created his colourful patterned fabrics and line.
Given the name ‘the gardener of fashion’, Mr. Scott would regularly feature large scale flowers in his creations, including peonies, roses, poppies and sunflowers. Designs from his archive appear on Epilogue’s clothing and accessories for men and women. Colour and floral patterns define the looks. The prints turn up unexpectedly on fleeces, on down jackets, evening gowns, as well as silk accessories including headbands and printed on bags.
The Gucci Ken Scott collaboration is also applied to shoes. For men, the look is sporty and casual; a black cotton base fabric has been printed with contrasting gold lettering – the initials KS and GG – mixed with gold and silver flowers. This material also features for the Gucci Tennis 1977 in lace-up and slip-on models, and the Pursuit slide. The lace-up Tennis shoe also features the green-red-green House Web stripe. Then for another version of the Pursuit, and a Screener sneaker, a bright Ken Scott floral print called ‘Giardino d’Aprile’, translated as ‘April Garden’, displaying a combination of bright flowers, makes a powerful impact. The Screener sneaker has blue heels and a blue-red-blue House Web stripe, while the floral Pursuit slide features a large blue interlocking GG on each shoe.
For women’s shoes and boots there are four different Ken Scott prints (‘Giardino d’Aprile’, ’Zia’, ‘Jenni’ and ‘Pomponica’), all featuring bright combinations of flowers in different colours, and all detailed with micro Ken Scott and Gucci script logos. These have been applied to a fabric base to create the materials for a number of footwear styles: sneakers (Rhyton, Ace and Screener), slides, loafers (Princetown and Jordaan), flats and high boots.
For the soft accessories, silk carrés have been developed in different sizes, from small (70×70 cm), to classic (90×90 cm), to maxi (140×140 cm), to maximise the visibility of Mr. Scott’s prints. Furthermore, the offer is completed by colourful ribbons, cosy and refined shawls and stoles, headbands in lamé or cotton and characterful baseball caps and bucket hats.
Today, Ken Scott is a brand of Mantero, a renowned textile company, and designs from Mr. Scott’s rich archive are preserved by the Ken Scott Foundation, now based in Como.
