Ken Scott (American, 1918 – 1991)

Fantasia

Gouache on paper

Signed ‘Ken Scott’ (on the reverse)

15 x 10.3/4 in. (38 x 28 cm.)

Ken Scott was a fashion designer known for his fabric designs and for developing fashion shows. He was born in Fort Wayne and had his boutique in Milan, Italy, and in the 1960's and early 70's was one of the best known designers in that country. He had a flair with fabrics and his flowered print suits for both men and women were often the rage. At times, some of his typical color schemes included Ban-Lon dresses in lemon yellow, pumpkin, hot pink and pepper green or mauve, purple, chalk white, electric pink and black. At other times, his models swirled down the runways wearing flower-print jersey in every shade of pink imaginable, from begonia, bougainvillea and poinsettia to lobster, raspberry, strawberry and watermelon. He also inspired flowered turtle necks with velvet dinner suits. Putting Color Next to Color "Ken was doing psychedelic colorings before anyone even knew what psychedelic was all about," said a Manhattan fashion illustrator in a 1968 interview in Time magazine. "Nobody dares to put color next to color the way he does." Mr. Scott later showed leopard-printed suits for men and women and went on to design footwear to go with some of his creations. His fabrics also became wall coverings and bed furnishings. In Rome, Mr. Scott once showed his new collections in a circus tent, complete with jugglers, acrobats, a fire eater, and a llama, perilously close to panic. In the late 60's he was one of the first designers to show calf-length skirts in an entire collection. Mr. Scott graduated from the Parsons School of Design in Manhattan in 1941 and worked as a upholsterer and fabric designer before moving to Paris in 1947 to be an artist.